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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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A Plea for the Recognition of Christ as the Ruler of Nations, 
and His Word as the Law of Nations, 

BY 

THOS. M. C. BIRMINGHAM; 

OR, 



SCRIPTURAL POLITICS 



THE WAY TO 



NATIONAL 

SAL)VATI(DN. 



Second Edition, l^evised and Enlarged. 



PRIOR 25 GRNT^S 



Printed for the Author, 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. 

J. D. Barbee, Agent, Nashville, Tenn. 

1890. 



\:^Mm^x^ 



"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for 
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteous- 
ness THEREOF GO FORTH AS BRIGHTNESS, AND THE SALVA- 
TION THEREOF AS A LAMP THAT BURNETH. AnD THE NATIONS 
SHALL SEE THY RIGHTEOUSNESS AND ALL KINGS THY GLORY." 

— Isaiah Ixii. 1, 2. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Introduction 3 

The Economic Value of Redemption 29 

The Intellectual Value of Redemption 47 

The Sanitary Value of Redemption 49 

The Military Value of Redemption 51 

The Ordinance of Justice 61 

Redemption and Liberty 78 

Redemption and Peace 112 

The Way from Egypt to Canaan 122 

Examples of National Salvation and Destruction 146 

The Sabbath 164 

National Reform 180 

The Conclusion " 193 



'• 1 HAVE SET WATCHMEN UPON THY WALLS, O JERUSA- 
LEM, WHICH SHALL NEVER HOLD THEIR PEACE DAY NOR 
NIGHT ; YE THAT MAKE MENTION OF THE LoRD, KEEP NOT 
SILENCE, AND GIVE HIM NO REST, TILL HE ESTABLISH, AND 
TILL HE MAKE JERUSALEM A PRAISE IN THE EARTH." 

Isaiah Ixii. 6, 7. 



I am set for ih Meiise of the gospel" — sl Paui 



iCRIPTURAL f OLITICS 



THE WAY TO 



NATIONAL SALVATION, 




THOS. M. C. BIRMINGHAM. 



Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire ; 

Ivet us thine influence prove ; 
Source of the old prophetic fire, 

Fountain of life and love. 

Come, Holy Ghost— for, moved by thee, 

The prophets wrote and spoke- 
Unlock the truth, thyself the key ; 
Unseal the sacred book. 

Expand thy wings, celestial Dove. 

Brood o'er our nature's night ; 
On our disordered spirits move. 

And let there now be light. 

— C. Wesley, 



Printed for tpie Author. 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 

J. D. Barbee, Agent, Nashville, Tenn. 

1890. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, 

By Eva Birmingham, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



imiomL Salvation. 

IntroililctioD. 



" There are no politics like those which the Scriptures teach." 
— Johii Milton. 

" The leaves of the tree [of life] were for the healing of the 
nations." — Revelation xxii. 2. 

" Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things 
out of thy law." — Psalms cxix. 18. 

" The theocracy of the Jews was intended to be the type in 
substance, if not in form, of all righteous government. In the 
progress of civilization and religion, as the world approaches the 
grand prophetic period when ' truth shall spring out of the earth, 
and righteousness shall look down from heaven,' the govern- 
ments of earth will all be assimilated to this pattern." — Bishop 
George F. Pierce 's Sennon before the Legislature of Georgia. 

r~ri HE design of this treatise is to present an outline of 
-L the governmental ideas of redemption, and show some 
of the benefits that follow their adoption. The political 
institutions of a people have a large influence in deter- 
mining their welfare and happiness and destiny as a nation, 
and but few things are more oppressive than unsound theo- 
ries of government or abuses in their administration. If 
the vast powers and influences of government are to be ex- 
erted in a wise and salutary way, and for the greatest good to 
the greatest number, they must be founded on right princi- 
ples, and scrupulously guarded against that deterioration to 
which, by reason of sin, not only persons, but also institutions, 
are liable. When carefully studied it will appear that the 



4 National Salvation. 

Holy Scriptures contain not only the principles that should 
regulate the conduct of individuals, but also govern society 
even when organized in the form of States and Common- 
wealths, and that their teachings cannot be disregarded by 
any with impunity. If the theology of redemption is so ex- 
cellent that it can save and immortalize individuals, may 
not its governmental ideas be able to render an equally val- 
uable service to nations ? These two things — the theology 
and politics of redemption — mutually support and are help- 
ful to each other, and the highest civilization can only be 
reached by their united influence. To unfold, as taught in 
the word of God, the leading principles that should con- 
trol in directing the business of government, and explain 
their adaptation to the nations of modern times, is the ob- 
ject of this book. 

The Holy Scriptures* will be accepted in these pages as 
supreme authority, but with the understanding that we are 
to use our reason in ascertaining their meaning, and that 
we are not hastily to proceed to draw conclusions from any 
one passage, but rather examine all that the volume teaches 
on each subject before settling our opinions. For want of 
observing these simple and common-sense rules of interpre- 
tation, Roman Catholics found the doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation on " this is my body," although they might, wath 
equal propriety, affirm that Christ was in the very form of 
a door, for that also is expressly declared; and in the 
same way many devout Protestants have been led by the 
words, " My kingdom is not of this world,'' to think that re- 
demption had almost nothing to do with the affairs of earth, 

^ Those who wish to examine the evidence for the authentici- 
ty, inspiration, and genuineness of the Holy Scriptures are re- 
ferred to the works of Home, Harman, Tischendorf, and other 
standard writers. This subject will not here be considered except 
that the inductive method of showing their effects will some- 
times be used. 



Introduction. 5 

although in one of the weightiest of our Lord's utterances 
he taught his disciples to pray for the kingdom to come, 
that God's will might be done in the earth. Besides, this 
text is not a right translation. The Greek word ek means 
" out of,'' and the true rendering would be : My kingdom 
is not out of this world — not from this world — not one that 
me and ray disciples have here inaugurated. If it was, they 
would fight to prevent my being delivered to the Jews. 
But I have a kingdom, and it is one of truth and righteous- 
ness, that God sent me here to found in the earth, and to 
this end was I born a king, and for this cause came I into 
the world. And even if the text referred to was a right 
translation (which it is not), the view that would confine re- 
demption and narrow down its work merely to the salvation 
of each individual soul cannot for a moment stand in the 
light of other passages where Christ is represented as King 
OF KINGS AND LoRD OF LORDS, with all powcr in hcavcu and 
in earth, and sending out his disciples to teach all nations all 
things whatsoever he has commanded. And what he has 
commanded is to be found in his written word, from Gene- 
sis to Revelations, for the spirit of Christ inspired all, and 
much of it refers to governmental affairs, that it is as im- 
portant and beneficial for a nation to know and observe as 
for an individual to be acquainted with the doctrine of jus- 
tification by faith, or to obtain the experience of the new 
birth. And this view that the teachings of the Bible in 
reference to the State is an important part of the plan of 
salvation is still further confirmed by the fact that the in- 
troduction of the Christian religion in a nation always in- 
fluences the thoughts of its people with new conceptions of 
what is right ; and as the leaven of redemption spreads and 
gathers strength changes follow, affecting not only individ- 
uals, but the very form and essence and powers of the po- 
litical institutions of government. 



6 ifationat Salvation. 

A Russian novelist, Count Tolstoi, has recently written a 
book entitled : " My Religion.'' In the rebound from the 
superstition of the Greek Church, and the rigid iron des- 
potism of the Czar's government, he goes to the other ex- 
treme, and draws conclusions from the Scriptures that, if 
generally adopted, would lead to anarchy and prove de- 
structive of order and the very existence of society itself. 
In it he quotes from the sermon on the mount, " Resist not," 
and " Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn 
to him the other also," and asserts that this should be ob- 
served by all followers of Christ at all times and under all 
circumstances. Ministers, and particularly apostles and 
evangelists, who would pioneer and lead the way for the king- 
dom of Christ to enter *' the regions beyond," needed specific 
instructions, so as not to unnecessarily antagonize the prej- 
udices of the people where they might labor; and for a mis- 
sionary who would to-day land in Turkey or at Hong Kong 
there are no better directions than the passage quoted and 
what immediately follows. But it is surely not the will of 
God that a whole community anywhere should be subject to 
the whim or outrage that any ruffian or desperado chooses to 
perpetrate; and it is a perversion of the will of God to take 
directions that were only meant for ministers under very 
exceptional circumstances, and make of them rules to govern 
magistrates in preserving order and administering the po- 
litical affairs of a Commonwealth. If Tolstoi had care- 
fully searched the Scriptures, he would have found the du- 
ties of both clearly but separately defined, and might easily 
have avoided such a misinterpretation. Again, in the same 
book, the author quotes, " Judge not," and from that reasons 
that courts and tribunals are all unscriptural and contrary 
to the teachings of Christ. But God in Christ did himself 
institute courts with judges in each city, and nowhere are 
they commanded to greater diligence in the duties of their 



introduction, 7 

office than in the word of God. So scrupulous are the Holy 
Scriptures of public justice being faithfully administered 
that they ordain that if a man were found slain, and the 
doer of it was not discovered, it raised a presumption of 
official negligence. In that case, and that those in author- 
ity might know of their responsibility, the officers of the 
city nearest to where the body of the slain man was found 
were required to go into a wild and rocky place, and take 
a heifer ; and there, amid the sublimities of nature, strike off 
its head, and over the bleeding carcass of that animal they 
were to be questioned by a minister as to their diligence and 
blamelessness, and each one was required to affirm that, 
'* Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our 
eyes seen it." (Deut. xxi. 1-9.) As if with us, when an 
offense was committed, and no indictment was returned 
charging any one with the crime, the law would then re- 
quire the judge, sheriff, prosecuting attorney, and all the 
grand jurors to make oath that it was not through any 
want of diligence on their part that the criminal was not 
brought to justice, and that they themselves were not the 
guilty parties — a procedure that it would be well to incor- 
porate into the laws of all nations. And the fallacy of Tol- 
stoi's reasoning is not difficult to point out. He fails to dis- 
tinguish between magistrates and ministers; although the 
inspired writers define the duties of both, and any thing like 
an attentive study of the word of God would have clearly 
revealed the difference. 

The Holy Scriptures were designed not only for magis- . 
trates, statesmen, and ministers of religion, but also for the 
common people, and they offer light and guidance to all 
who study them in humility, sincerely desiring to know the 
will of God. "The meek will he guide in judgment, and 
the meek will he teach his way,'' is what they declare. But 
the Roman Catholic Church claims that with authority it 



8 National SaUatioUi 

can define what the word of God teaches on each subject; 
and that its decretals and articles of faith are infallible, 
and by accepting them all may be delivered from fanati- 
cism, or from being lost in the quagmires of error and su- 
perstition, and also saved from the onerous burden and 
labor of each person being required to search them for him- 
self This theory of a Church with great councils of learned 
men accurately defining the Articles of Faith looks plausi- 
ble, but the facts of history prove that it cannot be depend- 
ed on for unerring and infallible wisdom. In all ages, both 
ancient and modern, the common people, when able to read 
the Scriptures, and having them in possession, have made 
less mistakes in understanding their true meaning than 
great councils in formulating and expounding their princi- 
ples. In Judea, when the nation was nearing the Babylonish 
captivity, the priesthood, although the custodians of the live- 
ly oracles, were generally farther away from their teachings 
than the common people ; and emphatically it was so in 
Christ's time. When the multitude read or heard the 
prophecies going before, and saw his miracles, they believed 
on him; but the chief priests, who mainly composed the 
Sanhedrim, were nearly unanimous in his condemnation, and 
since then substantially the same thing has often happened, 
until truth has frequently been made to cry out, " I was 
wounded in the house of my friends," and by the very men 
that were consecrated for my defense. And it should be uni- 
versally known by all mankind that ministers of religion 
should only be given authority when they speak in accord- 
ance with the inspired word. Any thing contrary to it 
should not be obeyed or received, even if delivered by an 
angel from heaven, and substituting a theological formula 
for the word of God has always proved a snare, and is 
specifically prohibited. "Ye shall not add unto the word 
which 1 command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from 



tntrodiictiorii 9 

it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your 
God." (Deut. iv. 2.) While a proper deference should be 
shown to the order of a Church, and great weight should 
be given to the opinions of a body of holy and learned men, 
it is still always in order for each one to see and examine 
for himself if what is taught and required is in accord- 
ance with the word of God. And one of the most grievous 
things about Romanism is that, holding to the infallibility 
of the pope, it must then, to be consistent, substitute his de- 
cretals and the Articles of Faith he approves for the word 
of God. This it does, and in practice it has the effect of 
leading to such a withdrawal of the Scriptures from the 
laity that many cannot read or examine them, nor observe 
the command to teach them diligently to their children, nor 
obtain the blessing promised to the man whose " delight is 
in the law of the Lord ; and in his law doth he meditate 
day and night." And this even to-day is to a large extent 
the present condition of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, South 
America, and everywhere that form of religion has exclu- 
sive control. It may be alleged that the ritual of the mass 
and other religious books are given to the people instead of 
the Scriptures. But these things are not the word of God, 
and neither does that sure guidance and quickening and 
elevating influence follow their study that comes from a 
devout and prayerful searching of the Holy Scriptures. 

The infallibility of rulers when believed by the people is 
a most convenient faith for those over them in authority. 
It flatters their pride, and if required, can hide their igno- 
rance or incompetence, and renders almost unnecessary 
any carefulness to rule with wisdom and in righteousness. 
There is a tendency toward infallibility in all churches, 
Protestant as well as Catholic, and in fact in all religious 
organizations, heathen as w^ell as Christian. Each ecclesi- 
asticism is strongly inclined to claim for itself superior 



lO National Salvation, 

wisdom and declare that some pope, bishop, grand lama, 
synod, council, or conclave connected with it is infallible, 
although none of them have yet been able to establish the 
proof, and it is entirely safe to say they never will. Indeed, 
the idea of infallibility in a modified form has passed over 
into the State and is found in the laws of many nations, 
declaring that " the king can do no wrong." And some- 
times the same claim is even made for a political party that 
its leaders may impress on their followers the safety of al- 
ways standing by the party and voting for every line of 
policy or nomination it makes. With an infallible priest- 
hood and a king that can do no wrong, of course the best 
thing the people could do would be to place all their relig- 
ious affairs at the disposal of the one class, and to put all 
their temporal concerns under the absolute control of the 
other. Incredible as it may seem, this was actually done, 
and for centuries ; but these were the ages that we now look 
back to and blush for shame at the credulity and foolishness 
of men and the depths of degradation to which society de- 
scended, and it but slightly relieves the darkness of the 
picture to know that the administration of a Church or 
State was able sometimes to put the doctrine of infallibility 
to a good use. It would have been immeasurably better to 
have rejected it altogether; and emphatically the man 
who exposes and destroys such spurious claims, when made 
either for the throne or the altar, renders both God and 
man an excellent service. There is need of much labor of 
this sort ; for these deceptions are still current even to-day 
over a large part of the earth, and it may be truthfully 
said that to a large extent infidelity has been caused by the 
clergy teaching principles unwarranted by the word of 
God and by their neglect and failure to teach what the 
Holy Scriptures do contain. Nihilism in Russia is to-day 
largely caused by the clergy supporting the tyranny of the 



tntrodudion, 11 

czar's government, the same as atheism in France in the 
seventeenth century was in large part caused by the un- 
scriptural doctrines of Catholicism and the clergy there 
supporting the extortions and oppressions of the king and 
nobility on the people. How much better if the Church, 
instead of making such fictitious claims, and shielding wrong 
and injustice, ^vould call all its ministers to the study and 
preaching of the word of God, that alone is infallible, and 
exhort kings and all in authority in the State, and the lead- 
ers of political parties, to each one get a copy of the Holy 
Scriptures and read therein all their days, that they might 
learn to fear the Lord and to keep all the words of his law 
and do all his statutes, that their hearts be not lifted above 
the common people, and that they turn not aside from the 
commandment to the right hand or to the left, that they may 
prolong their days and their children's in the midst of the 
people over whom they rule. (Deut. xvii. 18-20.) 

Idolatry and superstition consist in disobedience to the 
word of God, and particularly in worshiping and render 
ing adoration to something other than the true God. The 
root of it lies in the carnal mind and the unrenewed heart, 
but the creeds and the outward forms and symbols of what 
is false in religion have had much to do with the spread 
and preservation of idolatry. The truth of God, when 
faithfully accepted in all its fullness, is a shield and the 
crowning glory of a nation. But whenever any part of 
that truth is rejected just to that extent is the shield re- 
moved and the door opened for sin to enter, bringing in its 
train sorrows and calamities wherever it goes. Idolatry 
and every thing false in religion assists in removing the 
shield and opening the w^ay for sin, and become its main 
shelter and defense. So insidious and bewitching is idol- 
atry that all this time, while it is admitting and hiding sin, 
it is also engaged in deceiving men and nations into think- 



12 • National Salvation. 

ing themselves safe, when really they are naked and de- 
fenseless against their great adversary, the devil. The 
worship of false gods is still in the earth, and it has lost 
none of its power to deceive and to waste and to destroy 
since Moses warned the Israelites of its evil effects. Often, 
and even in modern times, wath its sorceries and its en- 
chantments, it has deceived and led astray not only in- 
dividuals, but whole nations to their ruin. It may be 
known by its fruits, and they are ^^only evil continually.'' 
Just to the extent that it exists in a nation does poverty, 
disease, ignorance, injustice, intemperance, oppression, and 
all the other effects of sin flourish. While it is true that 
its exercise may bring worldly prosperity to a few indi- 
viduals — as it sometimes does to the saloon-keeper for set- 
ting up a temple to Bacchus, and to the pettifogging law- 
yer for wresting judgments in the courts — it should be uni- 
versally known that wealth accumulated in a calling or by 
a method of business not sanctioned by the word of God is 
done at the expense of the general welfare and by working 
a far greater injury to some one else ; and for the public good 
all such occupations ought to be prohibited and suppressed. 
And if this may justly be done for minor offenses and with 
the lottery-dealer and the quack doctor, as many are will- 
ing to admit, why not for greater offenses against the wel- 
fare of society, and with that calling, the most injurious of 
all others to mankind, the quack in theology and the trade 
of teaching lies, followed by the ministers of all false relig- 
ions? In view of all the poverty and disease inseparably 
connected with idolatry, has not a nation the right in self- 
defense to cause it to be suppressed? When there is a clear 
perception among all peoples of the evils caused by idolatry 
and every form of false worship, is it not reasonable to sup- 
pose that scripture will speedily be fulfilled which says the 
nations shall hate her and make her desolate and burn her 



Introduction, 13 

with fire? (Rev. xvii. 16.) This was one of the govern- 
mental principles of the great statesmen of Israel, and the 
eminence that Commonweath reached proves their wisdom. 
The European reformers and statesmen of the sixteenth cent- 
ury also adopted the same policy, and the prosperity Prot- 
estant nations have attained in comparison with Roman Cath- 
olic countries is an additional proof of the soundness of the 
principle. 

Idolatry, in challenging the supremacy of Jehovah, like 
the daring fiend Milton describes, ascends on high and 
takes a place 

Next the seat of God, 
And with its darkness dares to affront his light. 

Without any just cause, but to dishonor God and to bring 
a reproach on the fair work of creation, it tempts man to 
disobedience. It does this with malignant hatred, knowing 
that in yielding man will thereby incur the displeasure of 
God and receive the greatest possible injury and lose all right 
to the tree of life and hope of immortality. Its purposes can 
most readily be accomplished and its power for evil spread 
the farthest by corrupting worship and turning it aside 
from its true object. This it does among heathen people 
where the Holy Scriptures are not found, by causing them 
to bow down to the likeness in wood or stone of birds and 
beasts and creeping things, and give them the homage due 
to God alone; in papal lands and places where the Greek 
Church prevails, by pictures and images of saints, and by 
using rites and ceremonies that are not authorized and for 
which there is no scriptural warrant; and in Protestant 
countries by teaching commandments of men, that make 
the word of God of none effect, and by narrowing down the 
boundaries of the kingdom of God to less than the Holy 
Scriptures ordain. If the pulpit proclaims that true relig- 
ion has nothing to do with education, then the schools have 



14 National Salvation, 

no alternative but to become atheistical ; or that amusements 
are outside of the pales of redemption, then that realm 
must be abandoned to the idolatrous rites of Venus and 
Bacchus; or that it has nothing to do with commerce, then 
the marts of trade become shrines of Mammon, where 
business will be done not according to the golden rule, but 
by the precepts of that idolatrous worship ; or that it has 
nothing to do with politics, then the courts of justice, halls 
of legislation and executive offices of state, and other high 
places of government become strongholds for the wicked 
one, where fraud, injustice, and oppression can be practiced 
without any regard to righteousness. In no Christian land 
is idolatry at present making a more vigorous effort for su- 
premacy than in the United States. With false creeds in 
the Churches, and by teachers having itching ears, and by 
insinuating itself into the marts of trade, the arena of the 
press, the world of politics, and the domain of science, 
particularly that of political economy, it seeks to con- 
trol the minds of its people and turn them aside from 
in all things worshiping the Lord in the beauty of holi- 
ness. In the contest it is greatly assisted by a clause in 
the constitution that requires the government to be neutral 
in religion, and consider all — whether Pagan, Mohammedan, 
or Christian — as being equally right; although there is not 
a page in the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelations, that 
does not declare that position to be founded on a falsehood. 
The history of all nations to-day existing on the face of 
the earth, or that ever have existed, corroborates the teach- 
ings of the word of God that all religions are not the 
same, and if the Holy Scriptures are not untrue and the 
facts of history for six thousand years are not all unrelia- 
ble, this question wdll have to be met, and the citizens of 
the United States must soon decide whether this nation 
will acknowledge and serve the only true God, and be pre- 



Introduction. 15 

served by him, or whether it will reject him and his truth 
and become a hissing and a by-word and a reproach and 
be cast off and become a thing of the past like all the na- 
tions of antiquity. 

The corruption of religion is one of the saddest chapters 
in the history of the human race. It is bad enough that 
there should be disease, but that the remedy should be de- 
stroyed is worst of all. That hospitals, instead of stopping, 
should spread a plague would be a dire calamity ; but that 
Churches, instead of making plain '* the path of life," 
would "shut up the kingdom of heaven against men " is a 
far greater misfortune; and yet this latter has often hap- 
pened. It is commonly thought that Mohammedanism and 
the rank idolatries of the East have there spontaneously 
sprung up like the growth of foul and noxious weeds in a 
jungle, but the truth is that they are offshoots from the 
Patriarchial religion, and once had the light and were 
founded by true ministers of God like the now dead 
Churches of Corinth, Ephesus, and Laodicea. From be- 
ing exalted to heaven they have descended step by step 
until now their light lias gone out and their darkness has 
become so great that they teach lies for truth and represent 
monkeys and reptiles as gods. However the true God will 
always have a Church in the earth, and " the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it ; " but only by fidelity to truth 
can any ecclesiasticism claim that promise, a quality in which 
they generally have been sadly wanting. Usually so strong 
is the tendency downward in religious bodies that it rarely 
happens that a Church lasts longer than two or three cent- 
uries. While the Catholic Church may aj^pear to be an 
exception to this statement, it is only apparent and not 
real ; for the establishing of the order of Benedict in the 
seventh century, and the Dominican and Franciscan order 
of preaching friars in the thirteenth century, wrought such 



16 National Salvation, 

reformatioDS and caused such changes as were equivalent 
each time to the founding of new Churches; and it was 
only the discovery of the printing-press and the blundering 
and mismanagement of Cajetan that caused the sixteenth 
century reformation under Luther to proceed outside in- 
stead of, like the others, within that Church. Such a gen- 
eral decadence, and one so manifest in all ages, both before 
and since the coming of Christ, should surely prove a warn- 
ing to every one against letting any Church absolutely de- 
termine its faith by any thing else but the Holy Script- 
ures. 

Teachers of religion and a clergy of some sort are found 
in all nations, even the most barbarous. They should 
pre-eminently be men of truth, and in proportion as they 
are faithful to Christ will they be enabled to recognize 
it, and by their labors render humanity a larger amount of 
good than the service of any. other profession. The prin- 
ciple, however, of fidelity to Christ as the way to truth 
and the door to the largest measure of usefulness to man- 
kind is not confined to ministers, but will also apply to any 
other occupation that is a public benefit. In proportion as 
the teacher, physician, jurist, soldier, merchant, statesman, 
and political economist are faithful to Christ will they be 
enabled to adjust their several callings and the sciences 
they represent, so as to make them promotive of the largest 
possible degree of human happiness and public welfare. 
Indeed, the elevation of society and the salvation of nations 
will largely be caused by the recognition of Christ in all 
callings and a perception of the wisdom and suitableness of 
his teachings everywhere governing the common business 
of life. Some one is always w^ronged when Christ is not 
recognized and the golden rule allowed to regulate the 
transactions between buyer and seller, author and reader, 
employer and employee; but the greatest oflTense is when 



Introditetion. 17 

Christ is not recognized in the pulpit, and when the word 
of God is not allowed to govern and direct its ministra- 
tions. When humanity comes there for the bread of life 
to give them a stone, and for a fish to give them the ser- 
pent of false doctrine, that will bite and sting and poison 
their lives, is everywhere the crime of crimes. In all ages, 
in spite of the magnitude of the offense and all its evil 
consequences, it has not been uncommon. The ministers of 
all heathen religions continually practice it, and even with- 
in the pales of redemption there has been more of it than 
many are willing to admit. Macauley notes that Voltaire, 
Diderot, and the philosophers of the seventeenth century 
in France, while starting from atheistical premises, landed 
on conclusions nearer the sermon on the mount than the 
discourse of the average clergyman of that period. And 
at times nearly the same thing has happened in Protestant 
lands. Conflicts have come up over questions involving 
mora] principles, and the attitude assumed toward them 
by the great body of the clergy did themselves and the 
cause of Christ that they represented but little credit. In 
England, in the time of Henry VIII. the clergy, almost to a 
man, turned Protestant with the king; and when his daugh- 
ter Mary ascended the throne they all with as little trouble 
went back to Popery and transubstantiation ; and when the 
other daughter, Elizabeth, reached the crown the same clergy 
again went back to Protestantism. There has always been a 
few heroic souls among the clergy valiant for truth and that 
counted not their lives dear unto them ; but the facts of his- 
tory prove beyond all question that the great majority, and 
particularly the chief priests, have generally been men of but 
little principle, caring more for ease and their own pleasure 
and the honor that cometh from men than for the glory of 
Christ and the spread of his truth in the earth. If this is 
thought to be an unduly severe criticism, and thq-t the acts 
2 



18 - National Salvation, 

mentioned, occurring at periods of national declension, are 
not fair examples of the great body of the clergy of Chris- 
tendom, then let Aaron, the high-priest, be taken as a true 
representative of the clergy, and his acts as specimens of the 
average degree of ministerial fidelity. When Moses staid 
on the top of Sinai longer than the people >expected, they 
requested Aaron to make them gods and he did so, al- 
though in faithfulness to Christ he ought to have told them 
that there was but one true God, and showed them the 
evil of setting up what was false in religion. This one act 
of idolatry cost the death of three thousand men, and since 
then substantially the same thing has often happened in other 
nations. Time and again a people have come to their clergy 
and said, " Make us a god in favor of monarchy or one in fa- 
vor of a privileged class," and the chief priests would then in- 
vent the doctrine of the divine right of kings or something 
that would be its equivalent. With enormous wealth con- 
centrated in the hands of a few, many signs indicate that a 
conflict is approaching in the United States between capi- 
tal and labor; and it is thought that but few of the clergy, 
Aaron-like, have sufficient fidelity to Christ to preach the 
land laws and the economic and taxation principles of the 
word of God, knowing that it would give oflfense to Bullion 
and Greenback, the bankers, and to Broadacres, the land- 
lord, and to Share-holder, the railroad magnate, and a 
whole lot of society people w^ho are prominent members of 
the congregation. If they do not, the time of visitation 
will some day draw nigh; for every sin, national as well as 
personal, carries with it the seeds of its own retribution, 
and when it does come minister and people will both go 
down together in the crash. But if any people want to 
avoid civil wars, French revolutions, and Babylonish cap- 
tivities, they should see that the teachings of their clergy 
are in accordance with the Holy Scriptures; and founding 



Introduction. 19 

themselves on the social and governmental principles of 
the word of God, they will enjoy peace and quietness, and 
violence and destruction Avill not be heard within their 
borders, and as a nation they will be preserved forever. 

It is the province of science to gather up facts and ar- 
range them with reference to their cause, and from a just 
classification to be able to formulate true principles. The 
field of science is the present, the visible, the tangible, and 
it does not seek to penetrate the future like faith ; but it is 
incumbent on both that they should be loyal to truth, and 
respond to its manifestations as the needle does to the pole. 
It is through these two great instrumentalities, when founded 
on true principles, that like as on wings society ascends in 
the scale of civilization ; and if an idolatrous creed is mislead- 
ing and a hinderance to. progress, so also is an atheistical 
science. Let either walk in the light of truth, and it will 
soon be led to discern sin and the evil of its effects and the 
glory of Christ in the work of redemption. And the more 
science recognizes Christ the more will it be in harmony Avith 
the principles on which the universe is founded and become 
safe as a guide and minister to the welfare of man. And 
when Christ is recognized in the arts and sciences then edu- 
cation will know that sin causes darkness and blindness and 
ignorance in the mind, while salvation gives it light and 
wisdom and intelligence; then commerce will get its eyes 
open to the evils of the traffic in opium, tobacco, and intoxi- 
cating liquors, and refuse to exchange such products, except 
as drugs; then will medicine perceive that back of the phys- 
ical there is usually a moral cause for sickness, and working 
in harmony with the agencies of redemption it will become 
so effective in preventing disease that vigorous health will 
be the normal condition of the race; then, too, justice will 
perceive that the administration of law is w^ithin the domain 
of morals, and that its decrees and judgmepts ought always 



20 National Salvation. 

to be in accordance with the principles of a sound morality ; 
and also political economy will then learn the true cause 
of poverty and oppression, and enriched with the wisdom 
given to those who follow truth, it will become better able 
to point out to nations the path of wealth and prosperity, 
and adjust every atom and fiber of government in ac- 
cordance with ^^ glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace, good-will toward men." 

When all the evils, wrongs, and deceptions coming from 
atheistical sciences are considered and become generally 
known may not the near future witness their reformation and 
consecration to truth and to Christ, who is truth itself, as 
was done with the creeds of many European Churches in the 
sixteenth century ? On the breaking up of the Roman Em- 
pire the people who were under its sway went to sleep and 
slept for a thousand years. During that long night of the 
Dark Ages the mind of Europe made no advance in the crea- 
tion of any new arts or sciences, or any literary works of supe- 
rior merit, or in enlarging the boundaries of human knowl- 
edge, or in the production of any important inventions, and 
the song of a great poet or the discourse of a mighty orator 
was not heard in all that period. The Crusades and the dis- 
covery of America roused them from their slumbers, and 
when they awoke they found the pulpit silent, the Holy 
Scriptures a sealed book, locked up in a dead language, 
with the key to its knowledge in the hands of the clergy, 
the ritual of the mass in its place, and the Church filled 
with rubbish like the pictures and images of saints, doctrines 
of purgatory and extreme unction, and a whole lot of rites 
and ceremonies unauthorized by the word of God. The re- 
vival of learning set men to thinking, and the discovery of 
the art of printing furnished a method for the wide com- 
munication of thought, and when the evils of these abuses 
in the Church aQd its departure from the teachings of the 



Introduction. 21 

Holy Scriptures were perceived and became generally 
known, the foundation was laid for the Reformation. With 
a general perception among the people of the injury to so- 
ciety and the hinderance to progress that come from the 
imperfections and falsehoods of science, and with heroic spir- 
its in the pulpits of the twentieth century, may it not wit- 
ness error vanquished in this field, and the domain of arts 
and sciences, ancf particularly the social and governmental 
sciences, conquered by truth and acknowledging Christ to 
the glory of God and to the very great and everlasting 
benefit of mankind. 

The State is an important element in the life of the peo- 
ple over whom it rules. With many, the examples of what 
it does has such an effect that it decides their opinions of 
right and wrong; and in making laws, levying taxes, ad- 
ministering justice, disbursing public moneys, controlling 
banking, transportation, and manufacturing corporations, 
settling the estates of deceased persons, and in the transac- 
tion of such other business as appertains to government, it 
wields a large influence in molding society. God is glori- 
fied by the welfare and happiness of his creatures, and so 
many benefits are only attainable through good govern- 
ment that what is wisely done for its establishment is 
surely within the legitimate scope of Christian effort. The 
disciples of the Lord Jesus are enjoined as they have op- 
portunity to do good unto all men, and because politics are 
corrupt is certainly not a valid and sufficient reason that 
they should be avoided. Then more particularly would 
fidelity to Christ and to the welfare of society require that 
the salt of the gospel be cast into the fountain of govern- 
ment, that it may be cleansed and its bitter waters sweetened 
and made a blessing to humanity. The reform, to be 
thorough, should begin at the root and consider the first 
principles of government, and upon what the State shall be 



22 National Salvation, 

founded. Shall it rest, as in imperialism, on force; or as 
in monarchy, on loyalty to the throne ; or as in a republic, 
on what a majority of the electors think best? All these 
are fallible, the first extremely so; and the two latter are at 
times, with a bad king or a turbulent populace, liable to 
become misleading and destructive of the prosperity of na- 
tions. They are the best, however, that man, unaided by 
inspiration, has been able to discover; but the Holy Script- 
ures reveals principles of right that are never misleading 
or destructive to the welfare of society, and their general 
observance w^ould prove the salvation of nations. 

Political economy is that branch of science that 'treats of 
the production and application of wealth to the well-being 
of men in society." * With the experience of six thousand 
years to draw upon, and in many lands the materials of the 
science are ample; but with all this advantage it is still in 
a very meager and imperfect state. At present it aflPords 
but little knowledge on the subjects about which informa- 
tion is most needed, and that have most affected th*e political 
condition of the nations — like the tenure of land ; employer 
and employee; patrician and proletarian; the best adjust- 
ment of social classes in the State ; the way to prevent ac- 
cumulations of capital from becoming destructive of the 
liberties of the people; the form and structure of govern- 
ment, whether imperial, monarchial, or republican; and, 
above all other things, the intimate relations that exist be- 
tween the knowdedge a people possess of the only true God 
and of redemption in Christ, and their power to produce 
wealth and secure its just and equitable distribution. These 
things are all factors in the problem of wealth, and 
it is precisely upon these themes, so useful and about 
which mankind most needs information, that the Holy 

*This definition is taken from President Wayland. Others 
make the science include more, but all cover this ground. 



Introduction. 23 

Scriptures are full and ample. Several writers on political 
economy have undertaken to supply this want, and have 
unfolded their views on the subject named; among the 
rest, Sir Thomas More in " Utopia,'' Plato in '' The Re- 
public," Rousseau in the " Contract Social," and Bellamy 
in '^ Looking Backward." As ingenious creations of the 
minds of their authors these works are interesting, and in 
many places highly suggestive, but they all possess the 
grave objection of existing only on paper, and never hav- 
ing been put to the actual test of experience in conducting 
the public business of any nation. Another and a much 
graver objection that all these works possess, in common 
with our present text-books on political economy, is that of 
ignoring the existence of sin, and not tracing the evils that 
afflict humanity back to that as its source, although all the 
facts of history corroborate the doctrine of the Holy Script- 
ures in reference to the fall in Adam and the depravity of 
man. Errors of this sort in the exact knowledge and 
statement of facts prove that much of what passes for 
science, particularly in the field of political economy, is 
any thing but scientific. So true is the gospel of Christ to 
the incidents and actual occurrences of life that it can only 
be rejected by ''science falsely so called." However, this 
truthfulness cannot in every instance be asserted of the 
teachings of the Church, but it can always of the doctrines 
of the Holy Scriptures; and if political economy will not 
recognize sin as the great source of poverty, and redemp- 
tion in Christ as the fountain of a nation's wealth, that 
only proves the blindness of the science, but does not in the 
least restrain the former's power for evil. In fact, in dark- 
ness and unobserved, and where its power for evil is least 
known, is where sin can best tinge the lives of individuals 
with sorrow and bitterness, and in whole nations produce 
the greatest amount of poverty, disease, ignorance, injus- 



24 National Salvation, 

tice, and oppression. In view of the truthfulness of the 
Holy Scriptures to the real dangers of life and the excel- 
lence of the principles they unfold to regulate the public 
business of nations, would it not be well for humanity to 
turn for light from visionary and untried and manifestly 
defective ideals, and from what is false in science to that 
plan of government that has been tested through centuries 
and when faithfully observed has everywhere demonstrated 
its pqwer for good? Through the sufferings and death of 
Christ its benefits are now offered and made accessible to 
every nation; and without what was local and the nar- 
row letter of the Mosaic institutions, that unincumbered 
its spirit and principles might spread to all lands and be- 
come the heritage and everlasting possession of all nations. 
Democracy presupposes some acquaintance among the 
people with the true principles of government. The Holy 
Scriptures contain those that are like their Author, true and 
righteous altogether, and the volume might fitly be termed 
the world's text-book of government, and great roll and char- 
ter of universal liberty and popular rights for all nations. It 
is of great importance that its teachings on this subject 
should be known, for history abundantly proves that soci- 
ety and a high state of civilization can only exist where 
there is good government. And does not the fact that the 
principles of government are revealed in the word of 
God fasten on every true minister and Church a responsi- 
bility to teach them? and does not an obligation extend 
to the conscience of every one who accepts the Holy Script- 
ures as inspired, to be controlled by their governmental 
principles in voting and in every other act where as free 
moral agents they direct the public policy of the State? It 
is often plausibly stated that religion and politics are two 
things that are separate and distinct; but this doctrine is 
not found in the Holy Scriptures; and the heroes of re- 



Introduction . 2 5 

demption never allowed themselves to be controlled by 
such a principle. When they met with a governmental 
question for which they had a '' Thus saith the Lord," no 
matter whether it referred to land or liberty or finance, 
they boldly asserted it before kings and rulers and popular 
assemblies. To know nothing among men save Jesus 
Christ is to have no other doctrine or political opinion but 
what he has given ; and to preach him crucified is to de- 
clare the efficacy of his death to be so great that every 
principle from Genesis to Revelation, either theological or 
governnnental, is now possible to all mankind through re- 
deeming grace. The creeds of most Churches are silent on 
governmental questions; but not so the Holy Scriptures, 
and the importance of expounding what they teach on that 
subject has often been demonstrated. God gave the Israel- 
ites a country of fountains and of brooks of water, that 
grew wheat and barley and figs and palm-trees, and where 
there were vineyards and olive-yards, and where they 
could eat bread without scarceness, and enjoy peace and 
prosperity; but the Jordan, full from bank to bank, was 
between them and that goodly land flowing with milk and 
honey. However, when the priests, carrying the ark of the 
covenant touched, the waters they opened, and the whole 
nation passed over on dry land and took possession of Ca- 
naan. In the same way to-day God in Christ is offering to 
all nations a goodly land, where standing armies are disband- 
ed and the children are going to school, where peace and jus- 
tice reigns, and life and property are secure, and where 
there is liberty and equal rights for all, with the printing- 
press to spread knowledge, and the locomotive, cotton-gin, 
power-loom, and reaper and mower to relieve toil of its 
drudgery. But when these things are presented to the na- 
tions many are troubled with a flood of doubts and fears 
about the manner of their entrance and what shall happen 



26 National Salvation, 

when they cross over, that if the gospel ministry would 
touch these difficulties with the governmental truths of God's 
word — that is now the ark of the covenant for all peoples 
on the face of the earth — the obstacles in their pathway, 
like the waters of Jordan, would vanish away, and whole 
communities would leave the realm of poverty, disease, 
ignorance, and oppression, and speedily reach a high state 
of prosperity and civilization. 

This world is the field of a mighty conflict between good 
and evil, faithfulness and disobedience, a kingdom of 
truth and righteousness and a dominion of lies, errors, 
darkness, and wickedness; and it should be well known 
that the ministers that will not expound the governmental 
teachings of the word of God are not only betraying the 
welfare of humanity, but also surrendering the claims of 
Christ and leaving a powerful weapon in the hands of the 
devil to deceive and lead to destruction whole nations. 
For not only are the wicked turned into hell, but also the 
nations that forget God. The facts of history and the 
teaching of God's word both prove that only in obedience 
to righteousness can nations be preserved ; and when their 
government is under the influence of the wicked one their 
speedy destruction is almost certain. This is verified not 
only by the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, but also by 
the ruins of Babylon, Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon, Greece, and 
" Rome, that sat upon its seven hills and ruled the world 
from its pinnacle of greatness." Why have these nations 
become things of the past, and now lie buried under the 
dust of centuries? Why did they not carry their freight of 
living souls on down the stream of time, until the angel, 
with one foot upon the sea and the other upon the land, 
proclaimed that time should be no longer? Through the 
grace of the Lord Jesus not only individuals are enabled 
to walk in the light of moral principles and become heirs 



Introdicetion, 27 

of an eternal salvation, but also during the existence of time, 
by its power, whole nations can be preserved in upright- 
ness. And patriotism, as well as religion, requires that this 
wisdom and po^Yer of Christ to save nations should every- 
where be made known, and particularly in a government 
like the United States of xA^merica, where authority under 
the real sovereignty does not reside at Washington or in 
the different State capitals, but in every man's ballot from 
San Diego to Bar Harbor, and from Key West to Port 
Tow^nsend. 

The lesson of all the ages, from Adam on down to the 
present time, is that through the grace of the Lord Jesus 
Christ the word of God should be made supreme not only 
in the Church, but also in the State, and over every thing 
and everywhere. Obedience to that is alone the path of 
immortality for individuals, and the way to prosperity, in- 
telligence, health, liberty, peace, and all the blessings of 
national salvation. Moses and all the Old Testament writ- 
ers understood that sin would ruin and utterly destroy a 
nation, and that the only way of escape from its evils con- 
sisted in the people, through their governmental institutions, 
observing the will of God. Christ and the New Testament 
writers expanded the idea of sin farther, and showed what 
the Hebrew statesmen and prophets but dimly discerned: 
that sin would follow each individual soul into eternity, 
and if not delivered from it here, that it would cause an- 
guish and suffering and kindle the unquenchable fires and 
supply the materials for the everlasting torments of the 
damned. But the views of the New Testament in reference 
to individuals do not annul or antagonize the political 
principles of the Old in reference to nations. Both are in 
harmony and quite compatible, and, in fact, supplement 
each other, and the good of the world and the welfore of 
mankind requires that the truthfulness of both positions 



28 National Salvation, 

should be declared, and the fullness of redemption can only 
be realized when the individual and the State both walk 
in the light of these two principles. If the truths that im- 
mortalize men are valuable, so also are the larger ideas 
found in the word of God that revolutionize and regener- 
ate society, and bring down upon whole communities pros- 
perity, intelligence, health, liberty, peace, and all the bless- 
ings of national salvation. It is to be hoped that we are 
on the edge of an age when a larger measure of these bene- 
fits will be realized than the world has known since the loss 
of Eden, and that mankind will now begin to discern the 
fullness of redemption there is in Christ, not only for the 
individual, but also for the nations; and that a voice will 
soon be heard from the pulpit, the rostrum, and the edito- 
rial tripod, and echoed from the farm, the forge, the store, 
the mill, and the factory, and that the locomotives at the 
depot and the shipping in river and harbor will take up 
the refrain, and all in unison cry: 

" King out the darkness of the land ; 
Rinoj in the Christ that is to be." 



Tlie Economic MU of RBflemption. 

" The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods." — Deuteronomy 
xxviii. 11, 

" Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and 
all these things shall be added unto you." — Maitheiv vi. 3S. 

"Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that 
ye may prosper." — Deuteronomy xxix. 9. 

'' Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the 
life that now is, and of that which is to come." — 1 Timothy iv. 8. 

"And I will save you from all your uncleannesses : and I will 
call for the corn, and will multiply it, and lay no famine upon 
you." — Ezekiel xxxvi. 29. 

HOW shall we correctly estimate the material benefits of 
different religions ? A good way would be to compare 
the happiness and prosperity of the people where each one 
has supreme control. But here we are met with the ques- 
tions : " How can it be done? and what shall we accept as ev- 
idences of happiness and prosj)erity?" The savage Indian 
tells you the number he has slain in battle, and shows you 
their gory scalps; and some nations, although claiming to 
be civilized, adopt the same principle, and point you to 
monuments of the victories at Sedan and Metz, and the 
Column Vendome, as evidences of national glory. But I 
take it — and the statesmanship of the twentieth century will 
be called on to recognize the fact — that the income or rate 
of wages current among a people more surely indicates their 
happiness and prosperity than any butchery of their fellow- 
man can do; and this also aflTords us an easy and satisfac- 
tory way to make the comparison. That our test may be 
accurate, we must take some one calling as nearly universal 
^s possible ; for it is not probable that a wagon-maker would 



30 National Salvation. 

get the worth of his labor in Venice, or a ship-builder in 
Moscow; and the rate for unskilled farm labor will, on 
the whole, doubtless best suit our purpose. While there 
are some exceptions, as a general rule the value of un- 
skilled labor is the unit of measure by which the rate for 
all industrial callings is determined. Whatever in any 
place is the hire of a laborer, multiply it by one and a half, 
and you have about the rate for the factory operative; 
double it, and you have the pay of the miner and carpenter; 
treble it, and you have the wages of the skilled machinist. 
And this scale of multiples hardly requires any change for 
China, Italy, England, or any part of the world; so that it 
is not an arbitrary standard we adopt, but what is really 
everywhere the great factor in determining the wages of all 
classes of laborers — the income of the farmer, the profits of 
the capitalist, the fees of the professional man, and the sal- 
ary of the well-paid corporation or Government official. 

So now, with the view of ascertaining the economic value 
of the different systems of religion and our standard of 
measure adopted, and laying aside prejudice — if Ave have 
any — let us candidly examine the conditions of the different 
nations, and see what the logic of facts teaches. We will 
begin with the island empire of Japan, where we find the 
wages of an able-bodied man to be about twelve (12) cents 
a day.* From there let us cross over to China, where we 

^ The rate of wages stated in this chapter are, after much re- 
search, founded on the U. S. Consular Reports, the narratives of 
intelligent travelers, and in some instances on correspondence 
with missionaries or other reliable persons residing at the places 
mentioned. Their substantial accuracy is believed to be beyond 
question. For public documents and valuable information used 
in their preparation the writer acknowledges his indebtedness to 
Hon. John H. Rogers, M. C, Senator James K. Jones, Commis- 
sioner Wright, and Acting Commissioner Weaver, of the U. S, 
Bureau of Labor. 



The EconomiG Value of Redemption. 31 

find it to be ten (10) cents a day; and in India ten (10) or 
ten and a half (lOJ) cents a day. Idolatry dominates these 
three countries. Proceeding westward, we come to Moham- 
medan lands; and, although the soil grows poorer, wages 
get better, until a fair average (and from which there but is 
little variation) for Persia, Syria, and Turkey is about twen- 
ty (20) cents a day. The weak points about Mohamme- 
danism are that it has no power to renovate the heart, and 
also that it relegates woman to a position but little above 
that of the brutes that perish. The religion of the country 
says that is her true place, and so no provision is made for 
her education, and the consequence is that not one woman 
in two hundred among the followers of the False Prophet 
can read. But a wrong like this is sure to rebound on the 
the doer of it, as w^ell as on the helpless victim. With al- 
most universal ignorance as the normal condition of the 
women of Mohammedan lands, it is inevitable that so- 
ciety there should be dull, stupid, and sluggish; and when 
aroused that it becomes fierce, cruel, and fanatical. But 
with all this it is a decided improvement on the idolatry it 
supplants, preserving its followers from bowing down to 
gods of w^ood and stone, and the reeking impurities insepa- 
rably connected with such worship. It also enforces ab- 
stemiousness, not merely from ardent spirits, but even from 
w^ine, insomuch that drunkenness is unknown in these coun- 
tries. So if you are a Mohammedan you are sober and free 
from idol-worsbip, with all its debasements, and as a recom- 
pense your w^ages shall be nearly double that of an idolater. 
We now come to lands w'here the Greek Church prevails; 
and w4iile this is a very corrupt form of Christianity in its 
doctrines, and a still more corrupt Church in its discipline, 
there is such a blessing in the very name of Jesus that we 
find wages up to about tw^enty-five (25) cents a day. Go- 
ing still westw^ard, we come to papal lands, and find that 



32 National Salvation. 

with a purer faith wages ascend higher, until a fair average 
would be about thirty-seven (37) cents a day. Italy and 
Austria, however, are somewhat below this average, while 
France and Belgium are so high above it — reaching to for- 
ty-five (45) cents — that they must be put down as excep- 
tions to the rule. How can this be explained? Belgium 
for a time breathed the free air of the battle in which the 
Dutch Republic was born, and neither the iron cruelty of 
Alva nor the Machiavelianism of Philip II. were able to 
wholly crush this spirit. Along with this, the Protestant 
government of the United Netherlands, while it ruled her 
(from 1815 to 1830), settled her institutions and established 
schools and manufactures in her midst, which have given 
her such a superiority that it accounts for her pre-emi- 
nence over other Catholic countries. In France, while the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew was both a crime and a blun- 
der involving untold loss to the nation, it still did not whol- 
ly destroy Protestantism. A remnant remained which has 
been influential out of all proportion to their number. The 
great statesmen that in time of trouble France has been 
forced to call to the helm — like Sully, Necker, Guizot, and 
Thiers — have all been from amongst them; and while the 
great body of the people (nineteen-twentieths) have accepted 
the forms and ceremonies of Romanism for baptizing their 
children, for joining them in marriage, and for burying 
their 'dead, its ethics for the last two hundred years have 
had less influence and control of the government and na- 
tion than in any other Catholic country. Along with this 
we must recollect that many of the most objectionable feat- 
ures of Catholicism, like the Inquisition, never have ex- 
isted there. So that what of good was in the system France 
has had, with the evil to some extent held in abeyance. 
Next we come to Protestant lands, and very largely depend- 
ing on the evangelical character of the religion they accept, 



The Economic Value of Redemption, 33 

we find that wages go up, reaching for the class mentioned 
as our standard to forty (40) cents in Prussia, forty -five (45) 
in Holland, fifty-two (52) in Denmark, sixty-two (62) in 
Scotland, sixty-five (65) in England, eighty (80) in Canada, 
and about one dollar (SI) in the United States. 

Therefore it may be stated that, taking the rate in idola- 
trous lands as the unit, it will generally be found that wages 
are nearly double that amount in Mohammedan regions, 
and a full double where the Greek Church prevails, and 
three times as much in Roman Catholic countries, and about 
six times as much in evangelical Protestant nations. As a 
rule, where wages are small the volume of business done 
there, in proportion to the population, will be found cor- 
respondingly small, with an exception in the case of those 
trades that exist on account of the poverty of the people. 
In Naples and all Italian cities a large business is carried 
on in the sale to the poor of coflTee-grouuds that have been 
once used by the rich, and also in selling them second-hand 
clothing. But a flourishing business in these trades does 
not indicate general prosperity; rather the reverse. That 
a community where wages are ten cents a day will not buy 
as much goods, or to the same extent pay for the services of 
the teacher, the printer, and the physician, or furnish busi- 
ness to the bank and the railroad, as where wages are a dol- 
lar a day is beyond question. So it may be laid down as a 
general principle that the rate of wages aflfects the income of 
all classes, and with it the value of every kind of property. 

In considering these statements it is well to be on our 
guard against a mistake frequently made of supposing that 
money has a greater purchasing power where wages are low 
than where they are high, as in the United States. Wool- 
en goods and some manufactured articles — like cutlery, 
glass ware, and queen's- ware — can be had at from ten (10) to 
thirty (30) per cent, less in Europe than here, but there i& 

a 



34 National Salvation, 

no reduction in the cost of food ; and rice can be- had in the 
East Indies at from one and a half to two cents a pound, 
but this commodity and the bodies and souls of men are all 
that are cheap in heathendom; while flour, meat, cotton 
goods, boots and shoes, medicines, books, and in general all 
the necessaries of life, with the exceptions stated, can be 
bought for less in the United States than anywhere else. 

It is sometimes claimed that density of population is not 
favorable to a high rate of wages, and that this is one of the 
great causes of the poverty of the laborers in the East. But 
a study of these figures proves that wages are fully as good 
in thickly settled countries as in thinly settled ones, and that 
as a general principle it has but little effect either way. 

A few years ago an infidel work appeared proclaiming 
that the great factors in the highest development of the hu- 
man race are a good soil and a favorable climate. It had 
some literary merit, and the world received the book with 
thunders of applause, declaring, like Lot as he went down 
for the rich pasturage to live in Sodom, that its assertions 
were as true as gospel. And yet a study of these figures 
will force any unprejudiced mind to the conclusion that soil 
and climate are not of the first importance, nor second, nor 
third, nor on a just estimate worthy of being rated over fourth, 
or perhaps fifth, in the circumstances favorable to the great- 
est welfare and happiness of the race. The peace of a land 
and the morals, intelligence, and freedom of its inhabitants 
are more important elements in the prosperity and happi- 
ness of a people than either soil or climate. Ceylon's balmy 
island possesses both of the latter, and a reliable authority 
(Consul Morey) assures us that it there takes two weeks' 
toil to procure what a laborer can get with one day's work 
in the United States. So much for Buckle's "History of 
Civilization." 

It is often said that the law of supply and demand goV' 



The Economic Value of Redemption, 35 

erns the rate of wages as it does the sale of any other com- 
modity, and this is the view that most writers on political 
economy take of the subject. But a study of these figures 
proves that only under certain limitations is this true. 
Each faith seems to build a wall about the countries that 
accept it, and inside of that inclosure, like water standing at 
the same level in each lock of a canal, the rate of wages 
stands at the same height within the territory occupied 
by each system of religion. There is great diversity in soil, 
in climate, and in the character of the people of India, Chi- 
na, and Japan, but substantially the same rate of wages in 
all these countries. Why? Because a common idolatry 
prevails in them all. It is the same in Mohammedan lands. 
Amid their diversities of race and products the rate of 
wages remains about the same in all. The difference every 
way between Greece and Russia is very great, but the same 
rate of wages prevails at Athens as at St. Petersburg. 
Why? Because the same religion exists in both countries. 
In Malta the rate of wages is thirty-seven (37) cents a day, 
and it is the same in the Azores, the same in Mexico,^ the 
same in Ireland, the same in Spain, and the same in Port- 
ugal. Here are countries differing widely in soil, in cli- 
mate, in arts, in language, and in the character of their in- 
habitants, and thousands of miles apart; but accepting a 
common system of religion, it unifies them and causes 
amongst them substantially the same rate of wages every- 
where to prevail. And there is no country in which the 
people and government are controlled by the Catholic 
Church \vhere the rate of wages exceeds half a dollar a day, 
although in nearly all Protestant lands it exceeds this amount. 
German rationalism, however, has brought Prussia down 

^ Bishop R. K. Hargrove, who has traveled much in Mexico, 
states that this (37 cents) is too much for that country ; that it 
should, he thinks, be not over twenty-five cents a day. 



36 National Salvation, 

very low, until it stands at the bottom of the scale. " Be 
sure your sin will find you out." 

In a comparison of Scotland with Italy every natural ad- 
vantage is in favor of the latter, yet wages in Edinburgh are 
double what they are in Rome. What causes the differ- 
ence? It cannot be in the soil or climate, for both these 
are decidedly in favor of Italy ; and it cannot be in the 
population, for a people who have shown such valor in the 
field and such a talent for government that they conquered 
and ruled the known world for centuries cannot be natural- 
ly w^anting in the courage and wisdom and enterprise neces- 
sary for a great people. Look at the many illustrious 
men Italy has given to the w^orld, whose very names are the 
synonyms of excellence — Cicero among orators, Csesar 
among warriors, Sallust and Tacitus among historians, Hor- 
ace and Virgil among poets, Raphael among painters, Gali- 
leo among astronomers, Columbus among discoverers, and 
Michael Angelo, who was a painter, sculptor, and architect, 
and excelled in all three professions. These were not mere- 
ly eminent in a calling; some of them were the foremost 
men of the age, and a people who have produced so many 
and of such shining eminence that they have won imperish- 
able renown cannot be wanting in natural parts. All the 
advantage Scotland has lies in the superiority of the five 
points of Calvinism over the decretals and seven sacra- 
ments of the Catholic Church ; and the fruits of these two 
systems constitute the present diflference between Scotland 
and Italy. And the very same results follow Catholicism 
elsewhere, and will appear when you compare Mexico and 
South America with Canada and the United States. The 
lesson this teaches — it is an old one — is : Give a people the 
grace of God, and they will make the parched ground be- 
come a pool and the desert blossom like a rose; and in defi- 
ance of barren soil and an inhospitable climate, they will 



The Economic Value of Redemption, 37 

" set a 'table in the wilderness," and enjoy life better than 
they can with balmy skies and the rich, alluvial land of 
Egypt to cultivate, if sin is there. 

Poverty always follows sin in a nation, and it is inevita- 
ble that it should be so. For sin has planted the ground 
wath briers and thorns, requiring toil to subdue thero, un- 
til now^ by the sweat of man's face must he eat his bread. 
Sin has also filled the heart with lust, anger, vanity, emula- 
tions, variances, intemperance, and lasciviousness; and these 
vices cause wars and strife and revelings, excesses and 
drunkenness; and their cost will impoverish any land, no 
matter how rich. Of all the religions of the earth redemp- 
tion in Christ alone offers a rational and effective plan to 
remove its misfortunes. It does this by removing sin, the 
root of poverty and of all evil. It aims to eradicate this 
from the heart of every one, and then girds them with 
strength to subdue nature. The experience of all ages 
and of all nations is that in proportion as a people seek the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness so are added unto 
them the blessings of wealth and prosperity. Always in a 
nation is this the case, and in fact they are usually added 
to an individual who in youth repents of sin and believes on 
the Lord Jesus Christ and abides faithful. Three out of 
every four, probably five out of every six, of those who com- 
mence serving the Lord in the morning of life become 
thrifty and more or less prosperous. Occasionally a Laza- 
rus may be found at the gate of Dives, desiring to be fed 
with the crumbs which fall from the rich man's table; but 
God will vindicate and justify the character of his govern- 
ment by giving Lazarus good things in the life to come. 
But a people having no immortality as a nation, in accord- 
ance with the cleanness of its hands and the uprightness of 
its acts, God here always gives it the recompense of reward ; 
and one has only to open his eyes and look to-day at the 



38 National Salvation. 

condition of the nations of the earth to see it verified. Who 
is manufacturing and doing the banking business, and who has 
control of the carrying trade of the world, but the Christian 
nations? Take the balance-sheet of the world, and you 
will find it to be heaviest in favor of those nations where 
Christ is worshiped and his great salvation most desired. 
This proves that the God of Isaac, who sowed in the land of 
Gerar, and through the favor of the Most High reaped a 
hundred-fold, is yet blessing the people who serve him in 
the earth ; and that the Lord Jesus, who blessed the five 
loaves and two fishes, and with them fed five thousand, still 
has compassion on the multitude who follow him. 

While conceding that there is a blessing in the very name 
of Jesus, still the Christianity that consists only in forms, 
and teaches salvation merely by the efficacy in a sacrament, 
is of but comparatively little value. All persons, but es- 
pecially every laborer and every property-owner, should 
know that it is only where the power of redeeming grace is 
exerted to destroy sin, root and branch, that its evils to 
any great extent are removed. What is here said of the 
weakness of Catholicism will apply to the Greek Church, 
and also to those forms of Protestantism that merely teach 
a formal and sacramental salvation. Sin mainly lodges in 
the afiTections, although it has its influence on the intellect. 
But its chief seat and stronghold is the heart. Hence it is 
only w^here the life and power of godliness are there brought 
to bear, " that the body of sin might be destroyed," that its 
efifects to any great degree are overcome ; and if the popu- 
lation of Italy, Russia, or China, with their religions^ were 
bodily taken up and set down in any part of the United 
States, the weeds of sin w^ould soon begin to grow here as 
they do where they came from, and to suck up the sub- 
stance of the land, until wages where they settled would 
soon fall to the level of the respective countries they came 



The Economic Value of Redemption, 39 

from. Surely this matter is worthy of a weighty consider- 
ation, and by no one more than the teachers of these differ- 
ent religions. If, after being tried for centuries, the effect 
of a system of religion is to retard and impoverish every 
nation that accepts it, nothing can be a sufficient justifica- 
tion for any person's continuing to teach its errors. What 
should a minister do who may find himself within the com- 
munion of any of these creeds? Let him enthrone on his 
conscience not error nor half the truth, but the wliole truth 
of God, and boldly declare it. Let him do any thing rath- 
er than " shut up the kingdom of heaven against men," and 
incur the woe pronounced by the Lord Jesus on the scribes 
and Pharisees, who '^ neither go in themselves, neither suf- 
fer them that are entering to go in." This may bring him 
in conflict with the chief priests and with ecclesiastical au- 
thorities and with the unbelief of the people, and may even 
open his way to the fiery furnace; but it will certainly se- 
cure him a good conscience, the approval of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, and glory and immortality in the 
life to come. 

These rates of wages also throw light on the parable of the 
prodigal son, and show that it has a wider and more literal 
meaning than is usually given in the commentaries. The far- 
ther off a people depart from the only true God the harder 
does their lot become. That humanity in heathendom does 
not wear the best robe, nor have shoes on its feet, nor the 
fatted calf killed, and meat upon his table; but that the 
lot of many must be such hunger that "he fain would have 
filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat, and no 
man gave unto him," requires no further or better proof 
than that wages there are only ten cents a day, and the cost 
of food and raiment on the whole not any cheaper than it 
is in the United States — in fact, the living of laborers in the 
East is described in a report to the State Department as be- 



40 National Salvation, 

ing but little better than '* garbage." And thes^ figures 
prove that outside of Christendom the condition of the great 
mass of humanity is much like that of the man the Sav- 
iour met in the country of the Gadarenes — in rags, without 
suitable food, and without any of the comforts of home or 
society ; and it is only when the angry devil and the drunk- 
en devil and the unclean devil and the cheating devil and 
every other one of the legion are cast out, and it is found sit- 
ting at the feet of Jesus, that it appears *' clothed and in its 
right mind." O the glory there is in Christ! And how 
much does the world of mankind need His great salvation! 
Furthermore, the w^ages current in the different countries 
of the world show the indispensable value and worth of the 
Christian ministry. The w^ord is here used in a large sense 
so as to include the school, the press, and the pulpit, when 
consecrated and anointed by the Holy Ghost for the spread 
of '* the truth as it is in Jesus." In proportion as they are 
faithful to Christ, peace and happiness and prosperity will 
crown their labors! Blessed is the nation whose God, 
through their teaching, is the Lord. " Righteousness ex- 
alte tli a nation : but sin is a reproach to any people," and 
the only w^ay of deliverance from it is by the redemption 
offered in the gospel. And it is this leaven of the king- 
dom in the hearts of faithful men and women that has 
brought the United States to its present summit of earth- 
ly glory. But who dare say that it cannot go any high- 
er; that the salt cannot save it any farther; that the light 
of the gospel cannot cause it to shine any brighter? Let 
more of its people enthrone the kingdom of God in their 
hearts, and let its governmental institutions be more ful- 
ly conformed to the teachings of God's w^ord, and the 
great republic will shine with a still brighter effulgence. 
The present degree of prosperity has been attained by the 
evangelization of only a part of its population. How 



The Economic Value of Redemption. 41 

much greater and grander results would follow if all its 
inhabitants were to become subjects of redeeming grace, 
and all the acts of its Government were in harmony with 
the teachings of the word of God! Save the money and 
health wasted by vice, by luxury, by using tobacco, by in- 
toxicating drinks, by costly, offensive wars, and turn the 
full strength of a people to " things that are lovely and of 
good report," and with an eight — even with a six — hour 
system of labor such abundance would be produced that 
the land would flow with milk and honey, and the fount- 
ains of knowledge would become so accessible that every 
one might have a university education. This is the gospel- 
promised land that redemption in Christ to-day offers the 
nation, any nation, all nations; and in proportion as the 
Church is faithful to Christ will she guide them into that 
goodly land. 

The word of the Lord declares (and the experience of all 
ages attests its truthfulness) that righteousness in the peo- 
ple and government will bring prosperity to a nation, and 
sin will be the cause of its ruin and destruction. What 
folly, then, and what an injustice to its people, for a Gov- 
ernment to license wrong! Enact and enforce prohibitory 
laws against the liquor traffic, and inside of ten years it is 
highly probable that the wages of every one engaged in a 
useful calling would double. The laborer who is now get- 
ting one dollar and a quarter a day would then be receiv- 
ing two dollars and a half, and the mechanic who is now re- 
ceiving this amount would then be receiving five dollars a 
day; and such prosperity would appear in the land as the 
Scriptures tell us there was in Solomon's time, when gold 
and silver became as plentiful as the stones in Jerusalem. 
Will not every one engaged in the work of the gospel — ei- 
ther as preacher, teacher, or writer — take fresh courage? 
Your hand is on the lever that will yet raise the world of 



42 National Salvation. 

mankind and cause them to " obtain joy and gladness, and 
sorrow and sighing shall flee away/' 

who would not a champion be 

In this the lordlier chivalry ? 

Uprouse ye now, brave brother band, 

With honest heart and working hand ; 

We are but few, toil-tried but true, 

And hearts beat high to dare and do. 

there be those that ache to see . 

The day-dawn of our victory ! 

Eyes full of heart-break with us plead. 

And watchers weep and martyrs bleed ; 

Work, brothers, work ! work, hand and brain ! 

We'll win the golden age again, 

And love's millennial morn shall rise 

In happy hearts and blessed eyes ; 

We will, we will brave champions be 

In this the lordlier chivalry. — Punshon. 

Political economy should recognize all facts within its 
province, and if it were a true science, it would be able to 
teach nations the way to avoid poverty, and how to increase 
in wealth and become prosperous. If the narrative of the 
fall given in the book of Genesis is true, and that sin and 
disobedience is the cause of the poverty of Adam and all 
his posterity, nothing is gained by science refusing the fact 
recognition. If redemption in Christ is the source of na- 
tional prosperity, the science that treats of wealth ought 
surely to examine the claim and, if w^ell founded, affirm 
the principle. If these things are true, they ought to be 
recognized as the essential principles of the science of wealth, 
and as such taught in the class-room from the chair of po- 
litical economy. At present God, through Christ, is not 
there recognized as an influence in the production of the 
wealth of nations. The science may be said to be in an 
atheistical state; and, like an idolatrous creed, both are in 
consequence always more or less blind ; and, to that extent, 



The Economic Value of Redemption, 43 

a hiiiderance to progress and a curse to the earth. But let 
this science or any other be consecrated to the service of 
God in Christ, and its eyes would be opened to perceive 
truth, and its principles would be adjusted in harmony with 
those upon which heaven and earth are founded. 

Established upon right principles, political economy 
would possess such wisdom as to make it a science in the 
highest degree serviceable to man and a safe guide to na- 
tions in the pursuit of wealth. With its blindness removed, 
it would soon discern that just to the extent that sin abounds, 
does it cause people to eat their bread in the sweat of their 
face, and in proportion as they are delivered from it does la- 
bor lose its drudgery and the hours of toil are lessened ; and 
even with less service the nation still continues to increase 
in wealth and prosperity in proportion to its piety. With 
even the little conformity that there is to the word of God 
in papal lands, their superiority over heathen countries is 
manifest; and with the larger measure of redeeming grace 
possessed by Protestant nations, there is a corresponding 
increase in their prosperity. When these latter nations were 
Catholic they were not more prosperous than their neigh- 
bors; and the same principle is still more clearly illustrated 
in the history of the Jews. When the Israelites, as a nation, 
observed the word of God and sous^ht redeemino^ grace thev 
prospered; but when they turned aside sin brought down 
upon them poverty and destruction. In the face of such 
an overwhelming array of evidence as can easily be produced 
from all ages and from all lands, will not the teachers of po- 
litical economy reconstruct their science, and adjust its princi- 
ples in accordance with truth, the facts of history, the teach- 
ings of God's word, and the welfare of society. All these 
things point to the fall in Adam and sin as the cause of pov- 
erty, and obedience to the word of God, through the redemp- 
tion in Christ, as the true source of the wealth of nations. 



44 National Salvation, 

And may not this view of the material benefits of the 
gospel be of great service in the mission-fields? In reading 
reports from them one is often painfully impressed with the 
thought that but few missionaries succeed in making an 
impression on the public mind — a thing that St. Paul al- 
ways accomplished. He did it the second Sabbath after he 
reached Antioch, and had *' almost the whole city together 
to hear the word of God." It was the same at Iconium, 
and at Lystra, and at Derbe, and at Philippi, and at Thes- 
salonica, and at Ephesus, and at Athens, and almost every- 
where he went. It is true that his life was often in danger, 
and the vagabond Jews followed him up, and he was sever- 
al times whipped, and repeatedly he had to leave on short 
notice; but wherever he went he was " the observed of all 
observers," and did get his message before the whole people, 
and gave all an opportunity for salvation ; and this is what 
many at great expense stay five, ten, and twenty years in 
heathen places, and apparently do not accomplish. They 
teach a few, distribute some tracts, and preach to a hand- 
ful at the mission chapel; but the great multitude is un- 
touched. What is the cause? To say that the heathen 
must be schooled and educated before they can be convert- 
ed is such a slander on the power of the gospel and the effi- 
cacy of the Holy Ghost that it cannot for a moment be en- 
tertained. God bless every missionary! but may not much 
of this failure come from not choosing suitable themes? It 
will not do to preach to the. heathen as if you were lectur- 
ing a class in divinity. We must get down to their level, 
and strike popular chords, which is just what the apostles 
did. Moses had the spies bring in the figs and grapes and 
pomegranates of Canaan, and show them to a people dwell- 
ing in a waste, howling wilderness, as an encouragement 
to them to at once enter the promised land ; and shall we, 
.through fear of letting down the dignity of the pulpit, or 



The Economic Value of Redemption, 45 

from any other cause, fail to show the full-orbed salvation 
of Christ, and how "godliness is profitable unto all things?" 
Not that the missionary in heathen lands should be silent 
on the terrors of the law and the torments of the damned, 
only along with it present this view of " the unsearchable 
riches of Christ." To explain in a country where wages 
are ten cents a day how other nations make their labor 
worth a dollar, and prove that through the redemption in 
Jesus Christ the same opportunity is open to them, must 
surely there be an attractive subject for a popular discourse. 
And seeing that the doctrine is clearly revealed in the 
Holy Scriptures, who can truthfully say that God would not 
bless it to the conversion of many, as he has done the preach- 
ing of Jesus and the resurrection in the apostolic age, and jus- 
tification by faith in Luther's time, and the truths of exper- 
imental religion in the Wesleyan revival of the last century? 
In no other way can we so speedily batter down the walls 
of error and prejudice and superstition that in heathendom 
are like ramparts about the souls of men to keep them from 
the path of life; and this truth, if well directed, is capable 
of becoming a formidable weapon, '' mighty through God 
to the pulling down of strongholds ; casting down imagina- 
tions, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the 
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought 
to the obedience of Christ." 

If in the past theology has not formulated the econom- 
ic value of religion into a doctrine (perhaps more than 
any thing else because wanting in a clear method of proof 
to demonstrate its worth), now that it is manifest, will it 
not be accepted and enshrined and given a place among 
the testaments that it carries in its ark for the salvation of 
a world? Through the preaching of this truth more than 
any other may we look for the promises of God to be ful- 
filled, that heathendom on land and sea will be shaken^ and 



46 Natio7ial Salvation. 

the strength of kingdoms that oppose the truth be destroyed, 
and the chariots and their riders overthrown, " every one 
by the sword of his brother," until the Lord Jesus shall be- 
come '* the Desire of all nations," and throughout the hab- 
itable earth it be said : 

Let every kindred, every tribe, 

On this terrestrial ball 
To him all majesty ascribe, 

And crown him Lord of all. 

And what better way to bring it about, and level '' the 
throne of iniquity," and cause the reign of Satan to come to 
an end, than for the armies of the Lord to go round every 
idolatry, and every false system of worship, and every traf- 
fic founded in unrighteousness, and let all the inhabitants 
of earth know the evil and poverty and sorrow and affliction 
caused by them, until these defenses of the powers of dark- 
ness, like the walls of Jericho, with a shout will fall down flat, 
and the kingdom of Christ come and over all prevail? God 
speed its onward march ! and may the time soon come when 
from all nations shall be heard " the voice of a great multi- 
tude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of 
mighty thunderings, saying. Alleluia: for the Lord God 
omnipotent reigneth ! " Amen. 



Tk Intellectilal 1/alile of Reieniptioii. 



" Put on the armor of light." 
" Wisdom is better than rubies." 
" God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding." 
" The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." 
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." 
" Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom : I am understanding ; I 
have strength." 

" Wisdom is the principal thing ; therefore get wisdom : and 
with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall 
promote thee : she shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost em- 
brace her." 

IF we examine the statistics of the illiteracy of the world, 
it will appear that the closer a nation draws nigh unto 
Christ the greater will be the measure of its light. In 
Protestant States neai-ly every one can read and write, in 
papal lands rarely over half, in countries dominated by the 
Greek Church not over a fourth, and in Mohammedan and 
idolatrous nations a still less proportion. China and Japan 
are the only exceptions. These two countries have some 
learning, acquired by the rote system of education; but 
they are both examples of the barrenness and blight that 
sin gives to the mind, and that even education is not able 
to remove, and a proof that even under .the most favorable 
circumstances it only becomes fruitful of good and useful 
ideas under the hallowing touch of redemption in Christ. 
In both of these countries, with all their learning, the mind 
has lain dormant ; and, after the lapse of ages, neither of 
these populous nations has giveu the world an invention or 



48 National Salvation, 

discovery of any benefit. And besides, in addition to the 
taint of barrenness that sin gives the mind outside of the 
pale of Christianity, education is, as a rule, universally denied 
to women, and has been in all ages of the world. If there 
have been exceptions, they are exceptions, and not the rule. 
It is highly probable that there are not to-day over five, or 
at the outside not over ten, women in every thousand of the 
whole mass of those beyond the influence of Christianity, in 
any part of the world, that can read and write; and when 
we come to consider the progress of the mind in invention 
and discovery the diflference between heathen and Christian 
lands is still more manifest. The invention of the reaper, 
telegraph, telephone, cotton-gin, sewing-machine, power- 
loom, printing-press, and steam-engine, and the discovery 
of illuminating gas, of anaesthetics to deaden pain, of the 
process of making Bessemer steel, and of manufacturing In- 
dia rubber have all been made in those nations that have 
drawn closest to Christ. And as the darkness of sin disap- 
pears, and the light of redemption continues to shine and 
increase in brightness, there will be greater and grander 
discoveries made. Glory be to Jesus, wdio is the light of 
the whole world, and able and willing to illuminate all man- 
kind! 



Ttie SaiiitarK 1/alile of Redemption. 

"Heal the sick/' 

" By me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life 
shall be increased." 

"I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and 
multiply you." 

"The Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will 
put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, 
upon thee." 

"And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in 
their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and 
healing every sickness and every disease." 

" If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy 
God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give 
ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put 
none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the 
Egyptians : for I am the Lord that healeth thee." 

THE doctrine is clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures 
that they that wait on the Lord shall renew their 
strength, and it was abundantly exemplified in the many 
sick healed by the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus, and 
is a part of the apostolic commission given to the Church 
and ministry to be extended to all nations and perpetuated 
to the end of time. As a living proof of this let us examine 
the sanitary statistics of the different nations of the world. 
England proper has doubled her population in the last fif- 
ty-three years, but on account of her political supremacy 
this was not all natural increase, but somewhat added to by 
immigration. But the Netherlands, without any immigra- 
tion, have doubled their population in the past fifty-seven 
years, and Prussia in sixty-two, Sweden in sixty-four, and 
4 



50 National Salvation, 

Scotland and Denmark in sixty-nine. But to do the same 
tiling in a country dominated by Catholicism takes in 
France one hundred and sixty-one years, in Spain one hun- 
dred and ninety-seven, Italy one hundred and eleven, Aus- 
tria one hundred and twenty-seven, and Portugal one hun- 
dred and thirty-eight; so that on a fair average it may be 
stated that a Protestant community will double its popula- 
tion in about sixty-two years, and a Roman Catholic coun- 
try in about one hundred and forty, and a heathen or savage 
state makes progress very slowly. Morocco, Tunis, Egypt, 
Persia, Turkey, China, and Japan have increased but little 
in population for centuries. These figures speak volumes; 
and the miracles of the Lord Jesus in healing the few sick 
in Nain, in Galilee, in Decapolis, and round about the Jor- 
dan are surely surpassed by the living power of his gospel 
to-day in healing whole nations — a living proof of the truth 
of his saying: "The works that I do, ye shall do, and 
greater." 

Furthermore, these statistics show how important the re- 
ligion of a country is to every one of its inhabitants,, and 
that it determines their health and longevity more than the 
soil or water or climate or any other of their natural sur- 
roundings. There is nothing that wastes and destroys life 
like sin, and nothing is so well able to minister to a mind or 
body diseased as the ordinances of redemption. The purity, 
prosperity, and intelligence that salvation brings are all 
conducive to long life, and the nation that will draw nigh 
to God through Christ is like the woman mentioned in the 
Gospels, who in faith touched the hem of the Saviour's gar- 
ment and was made whole. 



Tlie Military UalilB of RBdeniptlon. 

" The Lord shall fight for you." — Exodus xiv. I4. 

" The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." — 
Psalms xxiv. 8. 

"Ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you 
by the sword." — Leviticus xxvi. 7. 

" The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stum- 
bled are girded with strength." 

" The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee 
to be smitten before thy face : they shall come out against thee 
one wsij, and flee before thee seven waj'-s." — Deuteronomy xxviii. 7. 

"And the Lord sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty 
men of valor, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the 
king of Assyria. . . . Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king 
of Assyria." — ^ Chronicles xxxii. 21, 22. 

"And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of 
them : for to-morrow about this time will I deliver them up all 
slain before Israel. ... So Joshua came, and all the people 
of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom sudden- 
ly ; and they fell upon them. And the Lord delivered them into 
the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto 
great Zidon ; . . . and they smote them, until they left them 
none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade 
him : he houghed [hamstrung] their horses, and burnt their char- 
iots with fire." — Joshua xi. 6-9. 

" When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and 
seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not 
afraid of them : for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought 
thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be, when ye are 
come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and 
speak unto the people, and shall say unto them. Hear, Israel, 
ye draw nigh this day unto battle against your enemies : let not 



52 National Salvation, 

your heart faint ; fear not, nor tremble, neither be ye affrighted 
at them ; for the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to 
fight for you against your enemies, to save you." — Deuteronomy 
XX. 1-4" 

^' The Lord spake unto Joshua : . . . There shall not any 
man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life : as I 
was with Moses, so I will be with thee : I will not fail thee, nor 
forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage : for unto this 
people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I 
sware unto their fathers to give them . Only be thou strong and 
very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all 
the law which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not 
from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper 
w^hithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart 
out of thy mouth : but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, 
that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written 
therein : for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then 
thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? 
Be strong and of a good courage ; be not afraid, neither be thou 
dismayed : for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou 
goest." — Joshua 1-9. 

'W T'HEN war is unavoidable, to be triumphant in bat- 
V V tie is a matter of vital importance to a nation ; and 
when two countries engage in war the main thing in decid- 
ing the victory is. Which has the purest form of religion, 
that best eradicates sin, and teaches the righteousness that 
^' exalteth a nation?" This would be a new idea at West 
Point and most military schools, although the Holy Script- 
ures clearly teach the doctrine; and, as a further confirma- 
tion, we may examine the map of the v/orld, and see what 
the events of history prove. On examination we find that 
no heathen country is able to conquer a Christian nation, 
although the reverse is often the case. Cortez with a small 
band conquered Mexico; Pizarro did the same thing in 
Peru ; and Lord Clive and Warren Hastings, with a handful 
of troops, founded an empire in India. And the same prin- 
ciple holds good in conflicts among Christian nations. The 



The Military Value of Redemption. 53 

veteran infantry of Spain, that were not wanting in valor, 
led by Alva and the Duke of Parma, the foremost soldiers 
of their age, and backed with all the powers of a world- 
wide monarchy, were powerless to subdue a few provinces 
on the sands of Holland, where they were contending for 
the liberty to worship God in accordance with the teach- 
ings of an open Bible. In 1837 Texas, with a Protestant 
population of not exceeding twenty-five thousand, raised 
the standard of revolt ; and Santa Ana, with an army eight 
thousand strong, and backed by all the resources of the 
Mexican Republic, was not able to reduce them. The Tex- 
ans, although vastly outnumbered, but with a superior re- 
ligion, were soon victorious, and won their independence. 
To-day there is no Protestant country in subjection to a 
Papal Greek Church or heathen nation, w^hile the reverse 
is in many instances the case, and over extensive portions 
of the earth ; and it must ever be so ; for with sin goes fear 
and weakness, and with salvation goes strength, fortitude 
and courage. 

The Bible records some of the brightest examples of the 
military art. Take, for instance, Joshua's battle with the 
five kings. A courier arrives at the camp at Gilgal with 
the news that they are about to attack Gibeon, and urging 
immediate assistance. Orders are at once given to prepare 
for the expedition. The trumpet sounds, and the troops are 
put under arms; and, by an all-night march of between 
sixteen and eighteen miles, up a mountain, at daylight they 
fall upon the armies of the Amorites so suddenly that they 
are discomfited, and slain with a great slaughter. Now, 
while they are suffering from defeat, and in the open coun- 
try, and before they can get back into their defenced cities 
and have to be fought behind fortifications, is Joshua's op- 
portunity to make the campaign '* short, sharp, and deci- 
sive ; " and it proves the efficiency of the army and the 



54 National Salvation. 

military skill of the general that he discerned it. Al- 
though they had made what would usually be considered a 
good day's march, and fought one battle, pursuit was at 
once ordered, and they were foUow^ed by Beth-horon and 
Azekah unto Makkedah. This made, without any rest, over 
forty miles of travel on foot, and a battle, and for the last 
half of the distance constantly engaged in a running fight. 
The physical endurance, discipline, and courage of an army 
that on such short notice could have accomplished such a 
feat must have been perfect. In the late civil war in the 
United States some of the body-guards of the commanders, 
that were composed of a small number of picked men, might 
have been able for this w^ork, but it is certain that there 
was no corps or brigade of infantry troops in either army 
possessed of the valor, discipline, and physical endurance 
necessary to perform such a service. Stonewall Jackson's 
command would probably have come nearer it than any 
other, and did accomplish some wonderful feats of march- 
ing and fighting, but nothing that will compare w^ith this 
exploit of the troops under Joshua. 

General Early, in the Valley of Virginia, made a move- 
ment that had some resemblance to Joshua's attack upon 
the five kings. The Federal army, under General Sheri- 
dan, w^ere intrenched a few miles below him, resting their 
left on what was deemed an impassable mountain. On the 
night of October 18, 1864, Early divided his command, 
and sent one half, under General Gordon, to climb round 
the sides of the mountain, w^hile he took the remainder 
wath the artillery and advanced in front as close as he could 
on the Federal lines without being observed. It was an 
astonishing feat for an army to clamber over the rocks and 
precipices of the mountain, and particularly at night; but 
it was successfully done, and at day-break, unobserved, they 
formed inside the Federal intrenchments, surprised the 



The Military Value of Redemption. 55 

camp, and swept all before them. Provisions and clothing 
in great abundance were among the spoils; and the thinly 
clad and hungry soldiers, after an all-night march, were 
in great need of both (as doubtless were the soldiers un- 
der Joshua); but their salvation for the time being consist- 
ed in maintaining their discipline and organization until the 
victory was completely secured. As the Federals retreat- 
ed in disorder and great confusion, it presented a tempting 
opportunity to follow them and " smite the hindmost," and 
either capture or destroy the entire army. Early under- 
took it, but at every step of the advance men dropped out 
of the line, and organization was lost in the pursuit. Whole 
companies stopped to supply themselves with overcoats and 
blankets for the approaching winter, or to make coffee — 
just then a great rarity in Confederate camps, and of which 
a large quantity was in the captured stores. Sheridan that 
night was twelve miles distant at Winchester ; and in the 
morning, when he heard the guns, he galloped to the front, 
rallying his men as he met them, and made a stand six 
miles from the battle-field at Newtown. When Early came 
up his force was so depleted and disorganized that it was 
beaten ; and the advantage was followed up until he lost all 
the fruits of the morning's victory, twenty-six of his own 
guns, and one-fourth of the ten thousand men he took into 
the action. With a flying army before him it was a tempt- 
ing opportunity to follow; but in view of the condition of 
his own troops Early erred in ordering the pursuit, although 
the great loss he suffered was caused by disorganization and 
the failure among his own men to preserve their discipline. 
Nothing is so well adapted to produce courage, good dis- 
cipline, and physical endurance — the main elements on 
which the efficiency of an army depends — as true religion ; 
and nothing is more contrary to them than sin. This was 
well understood and exemplified by Oliver Cromwell in the 



56 National Salvation, ' 

wars between the king and Parliament of England. In 
the conflict the nobility and their retainers, as a rule, sided 
with the king, and fought his battles with spirit; while the 
towns generally favored the Parliament, but turned out 
rather a poor class of soldiers; so that victory inclined first 
to one side, and then to the other. After the battle of 
Edgehill, which was indecisive, and claimed as a victory by 
both sides, Cromwelh said to his cousin, the famous John 
Hampden, who was commanding a regiment, that '' they 
never will get on with a set of poor tapsters and town ap- 
prentices for soldiers. To cope with men of honor they 
must have men of religion. Mr. Hampden said that it was 
a good notion if it could be carried out.'' At the commence- 
ment of the war Cromwell became captain of a mounted 
troop, and writes to a friend : " I have a lovely company ; 
you would respect them did you know them. They are not 
Anabaptists ; they are honest, sober Christians, and they ex- 
pect to be used as men." Again he writes to the authorities, 
urging them to be careful to ^' choose honest, godly men for 
captains of horse: for honest men will follow them; and 
they will be careful to mount only such." He soon became 
colonel, and prayer-meetings in that regiment were fre- 
quent; and not a man swore but he paid his twelve pence; 
and no drinking, disorder, or impiety was allowed. At the 
battle of Marston Moor this regiment turned the scale and 
brought victory over to the Parliament side. And the 
advantages of an army like it became so manifest that a 
bill was passed to " new model " the military forces somewhat 
on Cromwell's plan and to prohibit members of Parliament 
from holding commands in the army. 

When the *' new model" was adopted the -Parliament 
forces, although sometimes severely pressed, were after that 
never defeated! The victories of Naseby and the capture 
of Bristol speedily followed, and they were soon m com- 



The Military Value of Redemption. 57 

plete control of the kingdom. When Avar broke out with 
Scotland ten thousand of them, commanded by Cromwell, 
were close to Dunbar; and their enemies, thirty thousand 
strong, under General Leslie, held the only pass for their 
escape. 

Cromwell wrote a letter to Hazeling, Governor of Newcas- 
tle, saying that if he got out it would be '' almost a miracle." 
The sea was all about him, and it broke on the beach with 
a heavy swell, as if it were sounding a funeral dirge for his 
army. In this extremity, and not knowing what to do, his 
faith does not fail him. He continues: "The only wise 
God knows what is best. All shall Avork for good. Our 
minds are comfortable — praised be the Lord! — though our 
present condition be as it is. And indeed we have much 
hope in the Lord, of whose mercy we have had large expe- 
rience." That evening Leslie felt so sure of capturing him 
that he marched down for his surrender or annihilation. 
Cromwell noticed as he did so that his troops were in very 
close columns, and that he halted them in ground so nar- 
row between a brook and a steep hill that they had not suf- 
ficient room to maneuver; that his right wing was some- 
what exposed, and without much support from the center. 
This to Oliver was like the sound of a going in the mulber- 
ry tops that we read about in the book of Samuel, and he 
exclaimed : " The Lord hath delivered them into our hands ! " 
Could he not now strike that right wing with all his strength, 
and throw it back in confusion, to spread disorder to the 
main body, and follow it so closely as to defeat all before they 
could reform their lines? That night he placed his troops 
in position to attack. The army discerned its danger, and 
the time w-as mostly spent in prayer. The commander of a 
regiment, riding along at night, hears the voice of a subal- 
tern leading in prayer with such marvelous liberty that he 
stops to listen, and is so strengthened that he becomes cer- 



58 National Salvation. 

taiD, and tells several that he is sure a way will be opened 
for^ their deliverance. In the gray dawn the trumpets 
sound, and both sides are stirring. As they charge they 
cry, ^' The Lord of hosts! the Lord of hosts!" and Oli- 
ver says, " Let God arise, and let his enemies be scat- 
tered." On the first onset the assaulting column wavered; 
" but," says their commander, "God gave us courage, and 
the enemy" became like stubble to our swords;" and in 
three-quarters of an hour, just as the sun rose, the Scotch 
army was throw^n into confusion, and soon shivered into 
fragments; and Cromwell, as soon as he was master of the 
field, halted his troops long enough to sing the one hundred . 
and seventeenth Psalm, and then started in pursuit of the 
fugitives. He writes to a friend the next day: "After 
much appealing to God we fought the Scotch armies, and 
the fight lasted above an hour. We killed (as most think) 
three thousand, took nearly ten thousand prisoners, all their 
train, about thirty guns, great and small, besides bullet, 
match, and powder very considerable, about two hundred 
colors, above ten thousand arms, and lost not over thirty 
men. 'This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our 
eyes.' " And in his ofiicial dispatch to Speaker Lenthal he 
said : " It is easy to say that the Lord hath done this, but it 
would do you good to hear our poor foot go up and down 
making their boast of God. We that serve you beg of you 
not to own us, but God alone." Some may call this fanati- 
cism, but an experience and history like this is in line wdth 
the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. 

Ireland is desirous of '' home rule," and ought to liave it; 
and so should every nation. But each time the eflTort is 
made, like the drowning man who clings to the stone that 
carries him to the bottom, so does it cling to Papacy, al- 
though all along Romanism has been the great source of 
its misfortunes. It commenced with Pope Hadrian, who 



The Military Value of Redemption. 59 

gave a decree for its conquest to Henry II. of England, 
which was afterward confirmed by Pope Alexander III., in 
1175. This act opened the way for a deluge of misfortunes 
that have continued down to the present time. Still plans 
are often formed for its deliverance — money is subscribed, 
and brave men risk their lives — but the uprising only ends 
in failure and in fastening on them tighter the yoke of for- 
eign dominion. But there is a plan that even against over- 
whelming odds has never yet failed, and it is very simple. 
Let any nation, through the redemption in Christ, rise up 
to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, and God will 
become its deliverer. This plan was tried on the banks of 
the Red Sea, and every one knows the result. It was again 
tried on the sands of Holland, and after the oppressors had 
expended a sum equivalent to two billions of dollars they 
were forced to acknowledge the independence of the United 
Netherlands. It was again tried by the thirteen colonies 
against England, and w^on. It is true that to a casual ob- 
server there may not appear much diflference in the relig- 
ions of these two countries; but the evangelical Churches, 
in accordance with the spirit of the gospel, have always 
loved liberty and taught the rights of humanity, w^hile the 
Episcopal, which is the Government Church of England, 
contrary to the spirit of the gospel, has often opposed it 
with all its might. It did this in the battle of liberty 
against privilege that Pim and Milton and Hampden fought. 
When freedom was crushed, and its friends were being put 
to death, this Church was engaged in wresting the teachings 
of St. Paul from their true meaning to manufacture the un- 
scriptural doctrine of the divine right of kings. And on 
the very day that some of the bravest men in England — 
like Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney — were being judi- 
cially murdered to satisfy the rage of a profligate monarch 
this Church, in solemn convocation at Oxford, declared 



60 National Salvation, 

that '' it was in no case lawful for subjects to make use of 
force against their princes, or to appear, offensively or de- 
fensively, in the field against them," and that ''passive obe- 
dience, even to the Avorst of rulers, was a part of religion/' 
True to the errors of its creed, it opposed the freedom of 
the United States. It is probable that there was not a sin- 
gle minister of this Church in all the thirteen colonies that 
did not hold fast his allegiance to King George and try to 
prevent the independence of the United States. But the 
colonies became free, and so will any people that as a na- 
tion will worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Let 
them move in this direction, and they will soon be caused 
to sing as they lead their captivity captive : 

" The Lord is a man of war : 

The Lord is his name. 

Thy right hand, Lord, is glorious in power. 

Thy right hand, Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." 



The Orflinance of Jilstice. 



"Judge righteously." 

"The law of the Lord is perfect." 

" Ye shall not respect persons in judgment." 

" The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." 

" Keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near." 

" Eighteousness and judgment are the habitation of his 
throne." 

" Thou gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good stat- 
utes, and commandments." 

" Law is nothing else but right reason derived from the Divin- 
ity, and government an emanation of the divine mind." — Cicero. 

" Woe unto them . . . which justify the wicked for re- 
ward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from 
him ! " 

" Law is a rule of conduct prescribed by the supreme power 
in a State, commanding what is right and prohibiting what is 
wrong." — Blackstone. 

" Justice is the fundamental idea of the State. All its rules 
should be but the application of the principle of justice." — Alden. 

"And [the king] said to the judges. Take heed what ye do: for 
ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the 
judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon 
you ; take heed and do it : for there is no iniquity with the Lord 
our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." 

" Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteous- 
ly between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is 
with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye 
shall hear the small as well as the greaf ; ye shall not be afraid 
of the face of man ; for the judgment is God's." 

" The purpose of civil government, either in its machinery or 
its administration, is (1) to maintain justice and (2) to provide 
for the'general welfare."— TT". T. Mills. 



62 National Salvation. 

" The design and object of laws are to ascertain what is just, 
honorable, and expedient, and when that is discovered it is pro- 
claimed as a general ordinance. This is the origin of law, which 
for various reasons all are under an obligation to obey, but espe- 
cially because all law is the invention and gift of Heaven, the 
sentiments of wise men, the correction of every offense, and the 
general compact of the State, to live in conformity with which 
is the duty of every individual in society." — Demosthenes. 

A WISE code of laws, with a speedy and efficient meth- 
od for their administration, is of great benefit to any 
people. Where there are good laws faithfully executed 
they become a terror to evil-doers. There a horse is worth 
more to his owner, because the chances are lessened of his 
being stolen. Goods can there be sold, and all manner of 
legitimate business done at a smaller profit, for the chances 
of robbery are decreased. Indeed, life itself becomes there 
more enjoyable, for the chances of being assaulted or mur- 
dered are diminished. It is the province of law to protect 
and make secure life and property. It does this by raising 
up a barrier against evil, that behind it the good may in 
safety dwell, and in peace and quietness enjoy the fruits of 
their industry. To do this the lawgiver must be able to ex- 
actly define the place where the good ends and the evil be- 
gins, and to accurately mark out the line between right 
and wrong. His object should be, first of all, to remove the 
causes and temptations that lead to crime, for here an ounce 
of prevention is worth a pound of cure; and if the laws 
are still violated, such penalties should be inflicted as would 
prevent its repetition.. But the penalty need not be greater 
than will deter from a repetition of the ofiPense; and pro- 
vided the welfare of society is guarded, the fewer and sim- 
pler the laws are the better. The highest excellence in this 
particular that the world has ever known was reached thir- 
ty-three hundred years ago, and by a people whose God was 
the Lord. Their laws built a wall about that people that 



The Ordinance of Justice. 63 

for simplicity ^ and safety has never been surpassed. The 
fundamentals were reduced to ten precepts, and their entire 
legislation did not exceed a few hundred pages; and it w^as 
equity and justice and righteousness from beginning to end, 
and has n^ver in a single particular been shown to be in 
error. Under it females w^ere protected as they rarely ever 
have been, either before or since, in any part of the world. 
If a great wrong happened to a girl in a field the candor of 
the Hebrew law asserted her weakness, and utterly refused 
to hear any thing else, and would only be satisfied with her 
marriage, if agreeable, or the death of the offender. But 
nearly all other codes, even to this day, afibrd but little pro- 
tection against this class of offenses. In many nations the 
law-makers, not having their senses exercised to discern good 
and evil, are often excessively severe for petty offenses, and 
other grave matters are passed by or but slightly noticed. 
Instances have been know^n where a youth, for breaking into 
a store and taking six dollars, has been sent for three years 
to the penitentiary, and in the same court the sentence of 
another for the larceny of eleven thousand dollars, and none 
of it ever returned, was only one year. Suppose, for in- 
stances, these two offenses were tried by the laws of God. 
All the diflTerence they make between larceny and burglary 
is that in case the burglar is slain while breaking into a 
house the killing is held to be justifiable. Aside from this 
both offenses are classed alike, and the penalty is for the 
thief to restore double. This would have made the sentences 
in these two cases very different from what they were. But 
surely the change would cause them to be more in accord- 
ance with justice. True to the teachings of a sound theolo- 
gy, the same statutes everywhere declared the sacredness of 
human life, and that man was a representative of the God- 
head ; and for homicide, if it w ere accidental, the doer of it 
must still live in a city of refuge until the death of the high^ 



64 National Salvation. 

priest; and if it were maliciously done, no satisfaction what- 
ever was to be taken for the life of the murderer. And 
these penalties were speedily executed, that all might fear 
and do so no more. But in many countries — and nowhere 
more than in the United States, and particularly if there is 
money to make a defense — years must elapse, and then only 
after great expense, before the final condemnation of an 
offender is secured; and this delay, to say nothing of the 
guilty persons that escape, makes the proceedings of many 
courts almost worthless as an influence to restrain evil-doers 
from crime. 

The methods of administering justice that God gave the 
Israelites possessed the prime qualities of being simple, 
speedy, efficient, and inexpensive. This proves their su- 
periority; for to-day, even in most of the civilized nations, 
the forms of law are still so intricate and cumbersome as to 
make its administration proverbially tedious and costly. 
With the Israelites an officer did not gather up twelve of 
the loungers about a court-house to decide a knotty and 
complex question. The day might have been when the trial 
by jury served as a breakwater against the tyranny of the 
crown ; but in a free government the jury system as we now 
have it and requiring a unanimous verdict is more a hin- 
derance than a help to a faithful execution of the law. 
The courts in Judea were composed of a Levite, who was 
" learned in the law," and the elders, who were the lead- 
ing and most honorable men in the place. A change of 
venue was not allowed ; but if the sentence was thought to 
be unjust, there could be an appeal for a probable cause, and 
the proceedings would be reviewed by a superior court. 
The cause was tried apparently without the assistance of 
advocates on either side, but the judges were required them- 
selves to examine the witnesses and diligently inquire into 
the matter in controversy, and not to fear the faces of men 



The Ordinance of Justice, 65 

in judgment, but decide as for the Lord. In the trial be- 
fore Solomon for the possession of the living child we can 
see an example of their procedure and order of business. 
With us the judge merely presides, and takes but little in- 
terest more than to correctly rule the law. But that trial 
before Solomon is recorded by the Holy Ghost to show the 
wisdom of the judge's examining the witnesses and of his 
diligently searching for the truth in order to render a right- 
eous judgment. With them it was not necessary that a decis- 
sion should be exactly in line with another that had been ren- 
dered ten, fifty, or a hundred years before. The main thing 
they required was that it should be a just judgment, that 
would '^justify the righteous and condemn the wicked." 
This is just what the decrees of every court ought to be, and 
the Lord Jesus Christ and his great salvation is the way now, 
as in the past, for any people to have a simple, speedy, eflS- 
cient, and inexpensive method of administering justice, and 
for decrees that shall be founded in righteousness for the 
tribunals of all the nations of earth. Glory to the Lamb! 
One of our radical defects in administering justice is in 
assuming that no one has much rights in the courts but 
those w^ho are charged with crime. Surely the community 
whose peace and order has been disturbed ought to be con- 
sidered as having the right to such a speedy and faithful 
execution of the law as would make it a warning to evil- 
doers and prevent a repetition of the offense, and, as they 
usually have the cost to pay, that the proceedings should 
not be unnecessarily expensive. Let the trial of Guiteau 
serve as an illustration. Without any provocation, except 
that he was not given office, he had assassinated President 
Garfield and left a wife a widow and children fatherless. 
It was a plain case, easily proved, and, in fact, the charge 
was not denied. Surely two, or at the outside five, thou- 
sand dollars of the savings of honest industry ought to be 
5 



66 National Salvation. 

ample to have gone through with the forms of law in his 
condemnation. But the bill of expense sent in and paid by 
the United States Treasurer for that trial was forty thou- 
sand dollars. This is but a fair specimen of hundreds of 
similar cases of the expensiveness of justice that are occur- 
ring in every State of the Union, insomuch that some com- 
munities are deterred from enforcing the law on account of 
the uncertainty and expense attending its execution. It 
costs the United States Government between three and four 
millions annually to administer justice. No returns of its 
cost to the different States are accessible, but it is thought 
that thirty millions annually would be a low estimate, ev- 
ery dollar of which must be met by the taxation of honest 
labor, and is that much drawn from the wealth of the peo- 
ple. With simpler laws and a speedier and more efficient 
method of administering them, it is believed the same work 
could be fully as well done for half the money. This ad- 
vance through Christ is possible to any people. Let the 
intellect of a nation to-day receive the hallowing and illumi- 
nating touch of redeeming grace, and of Him who opened 
the eyes of the blind, and it w-ill not merely invent contriv- 
ances like the reaper and the telegraph, that are the admi- 
ration of the civilized w^orld, but it will also simplify law^s 
and devise contrivances that will give speed and efficiency 
to the dispatch of the public business in the courts. 

As an additional evidence of the corruption of the courts 
and the great need that exists for a reform in the adminis- 
tration of justice, the following clipping from the St Louis 
Republic of July 27, 1888, is here inserted : 

John Curtis's bond of eight hundred dollars, signed by his fa- 
ther, w^as returned into court yesterday as ^^ nulla bona,^^ or no 
good. March 30th last Curtis took a room in the Merchants' 
Hotel, and called for ice-w^ater. When the negro porter, Bon- 
ham, delivered the water Curtis shot him iix the hip because he 



The Ordinance of Justice, 67 

would not dance. He was arrested, and through influence and 
pleading his case was continued seven times. A bond of eight 
hundred dollars was taken for his appearance, with his father as 
security, after his arrest; but this was never declared forfeited 
until last Monday, when Judge Paxson was on the bench. Like 
every bond in such cases, it was returned " no good," and the 
record of not realizing on forfeited bonds is unbroken in the 
criminal courts in St. Louis. 

It is not difficult to imagine the twists and turns and 
misrepresentations that were likely used in that case to get 
a continuance seven times. And when the evidence was 
still too plain, and there was no other way to defeat justice, 
a worthless bond was filed; and this, when money and in- 
fluence is brought to bear, is stated to be the usual proced- 
ure in the criminal courts of St. Louis. It is reported to 
be fully as bad in Cincinnati, and still worse in the courts 
of Saratoga and Kings Counties.* The latter has jurisdic- 
tion over Coney Island, the great resort and meeting-place 
for the sporting characters of New York, Brooklyn, and 
adjacent cities. In these two counties they don't even pre- 
tend to enforce the laws against gambling and other like 
oflfenses. Recently an agent of the New York Society 
for the Suppression of Vice procured undoubted evidence 
against twenty-nine gambling houses, and laid it before the 
grand jury of Saratoga County. Some of the grand jurors 
voted against the bills because they said that if they were 
to stop gambling it would " ruin the big hotels and livery- 
men at the springs." But others of the leading tax-payers 
who were on the grand jury said they voted against them 
because the legal battle in the courts would cost the county 
not less than fifty thousand dollars, and the probabilities 
were that after all nothing would be accomplished; and 
they did not, on uncertainties, want to incur that addition- 

^ See " Gambling Outrages," by Anthony Comstock, published 
by the American News Company. 



68 National Salvation. 

al amount of taxation. But in considering such a state of 
affairs, common in many large cities, the question suggests 
itself: Is it right for justice to give criminals so many ad- 
vantages that communities are sometimes forced to endure 
crime and allow it to continue rather than risk the expense 
and uncertainty attending the enforcement and execution 
of the law ? 

A grave defect in administering justice is to put an attor- 
ney on each side, and let them, without any conscience, 
take all the advantage possible of the opposite party. Some 
of the lawyers are upright men, and, of course, they all 
claim to be conscientious, alleging, if they do any thing 
amiss, that it is professionally done in the interest of their 
client. But it is a false conception of duty which assumes 
that they should contend for their client through thick and 
thin, right or wrong, guilty or innocent; and governments 
cannot, without great detriment to the public welfare, accept 
the doctrine that a lawyer is professionally exempt from the 
honesty and truthfulness required in other callings. In the 
statutes God gave to Israel this was strictly prohibited. 
There it was ordained : '' Thou shalt not speak in a cause to 
wrest judgment." This means that if a lawyer has no just 
grounds for his plea, he ought not to speak in that cause, 
either to prosecute or defend, or make dilatory motions, or 
take changes of venue, or appeal after appeal, with the hope 
that through some flaw in the proceedings he may be able 
to wrest judgment from the place called for by the law and 
testimony. If a lawyer is employed to defend a thief or a 
forger or a murderer, and the evidence discloses the fact 
that he is guilty as charged, that (so far as the attorney is 
concerned) should end the proceedings. He has seen that 
his client had a fair trial, and that he was not condemned 
in innocence, and that the penalty was not greater than the 
law affixes for the offense; and this, considering the claims 



The Ordinance of Justice, 69 

of conscience and the public welfare, is as far as an honest 
lawyer can go. But frequently the first verdict, although 
the offense was plainly proved, is but the beginning of a 
contest that is carried from court to court, and very often 
without any other motive than to defeat the ends of justice. 
The cases of the Chicago anarchists and of Maxwell,* who 
murdered Preller at an hotel in St. Louis, were both ap- 
pealed at great expense to the people, until they finally 
reached the United States Supreme Court — and without 
any merit in either of them worth mentioning. And, on 
reflection, similar instances will readily occur to any one, of 
protracted proceedings . in the courts without any merits 
other than what shysterism has invented, and which, for 
any demands of justice, were unnecessary. Suppose a mer- 
chant were to sell a barrel of flour, representing it to be 
good when he knew it to be musty, would not all say that 
such a transaction was fraudulent? But lawyers often rep- 
resent matters on the side of the plain tifif or defendant 
where the matter in controversy is worth a thousand barrels 
of flour, and when it is impossible for them not to know 
that what they are stating is false; and they excuse them- 
selves from any charge of untruthfulness by claiming that 

* Upon this case the St. Louis Chinstian Advocate editorially re- 
marks : " If the hanging was just, it ought to have been done 
nearly or quite three years ago. This tardiness in the adminis- 
tration of law tends to the demoralization of society. In the 
first place it weakens public confidence in, and respect for, whole- 
some law, and, in the second place, it emboldens bad men to . 
commit deeds of violence from which they otherw^ise would be 
restrained. They realize the delay and the possil^ility, even 
probability, of escape, and recklessly rush desperately on to the 
commission of high crimes. Depend upon it, if a country be 
safe, the people must feel that the law is in earnest ; that it means 
what it says, is stern and inflexible, and must and will be faith- 
fully and promptly executed. Nothing short of this will suffice." 



70 National Salvation. 

they are merely rendering professional service to a client. 
By means of skillful lawyers, fraudulent claims are oft- 
en successful, and just ones defeated, in the courts; and 
much of the iniquity and rascality going on in the land 
would never be committed but for the knowledge that, no 
matter what may be the crime, some lawyer, for his fees, 
will always be found ready to make a defense and "justify 
the wicked for a reward." Some of the executive depart- 
ments of the Government at Washington, and a very few 
of the United States Courts, have adopted the principle re- 
ferred to; and if it appears that an attorney has presented 
fraudulent claims or is acting in corrupt proceedings, he is 
debarred from practice. But it is doubtful if there is a State 
court in the Union that pays any attention to this rule^ 
Not that Moses has here formulated an untrue principle, 
nor because its adoption would injure the innocent or per- 
vert a just cause from being heard, nor because it would in- 
volve any additional expense; on the contrary, it would 
not only admit every just plea and facilitate the dispatch 
of business, but would also prevent a vast amount of un- 
necessary expense. The saved nation, walking in the light 
of redemption, will, very greatly to its profit, place this- 
sound principle of legal science on its statute-book, and put 
able men of truth that fear God, ^^hating covetousness/^ to 
preside in its courts, who will enforce the rule. 

The papers, in reporting the death, recently, of a promi- 
nent criminal lawyer in Indiana, stated that he had been 
employed in sixty murder cases, and in fifty-nine had se- 
cured the acquittal of his client. That the grand juries, 
usually composed of the best citizens, should, in sixty indict- 
ments for capital offenses, return fifty-nine against innocent 
men is so outside of the range of probabilities that it need 
not be considered. We are, then, forced to the conclusion 
that this man's talents were employed not in seeing that his 



The Ordinance of Justice. 71 

clients had a fair trial, but iu destroying the safeguards of 
society and in turning murderers loose on the community. 
If a person has a very ingenious mind, and uses it in open- 
ing the lock of a bank and appropriating its funds, he will 
usually be held reprehensible. But to do a community a 
far greater injury by using the same talents and ingenuity 
in picking such flaws and defects in the proceedings of jus- 
tice as will clear the guilty is the way to be honored as a 
great criminal lawyer. Verily there is still that which is 
" highly esteemed among men, but is an abomination in the 
sight of God." 

Mills is authority for the statement that in 1884 there 
were three thousand three hundred and seventy-seven 
murders committed in the United States, and during the 
same time but one conviction for this class of crime for 
every thirty-two offenses. But does it not stand to rea- 
son that if the courts would with any degree of certainty 
punish criminals, not half these murders and robberies and 
larcenies would be committed? Under such a loose admin- 
istration the law ceases to exercise due restraint, and the 
flood-gates of iniquity are opened for a deluge of crime. 
Is it any wonder that we should now be told that the crim- 
inal courts in several counties of Indiana are entirely su- 
perseded by an order known as the " White Caps," which 
goes round at night executing the decrees of Judge Lynch? 
And for this wretched state of society the previous miscar- 
riage of justice in the courts is mainly responsible. This 
shows the evil that a good criminal lawyer, without any 
conscience, does to society, and the imperative necessity of 
enforcing the rule laid down by Moses. If a lawyer has 
any learning or evidence throwing light upon the pending 
issue, by all means let him present it, confining himself 
strictly to the truth. While he does this at the bar or as a 
counselor he is a useful member of society, for he facilitates 



72 National Salvation, 

the dispatch of business. But if he is in the courts merely 
to delay and defeat justice, or wrest judgment, and give his 
advice how aldermen and legislators may be bribed, and to 
direct how valuable public franchises may be corruptly ob- 
tained, he ought to be excluded from the profession; and 
the honorable men in the fraternity ought to be among the 
first to insist on its being done. 

Sir Thomas More was the first layman Lord Chancellor 
of England. He was not only the first, but was also one 
of the most learned and upright men that has ever filled 
the oflace. He had been a judge of one of the inferior courts 
at a very early age, and had spent all of his life either in 
studying law or in lecturing on it at one of the Inns of 
Court or in expounding it on the bench. Surely the opin- 
ion of a man of such eminent uprightness, and with such a 
large experience in courts and as Speaker of the House of 
Commons, is worthy of a weighty consideration. In a pas- 
sage of a book describing his ideal of government and soci- 
ety we get his views. Some may think them visionary, but 
those who do ought to recollect that they follow almost ex- 
actly the line of thought of Moses and Solomon about sim- 
plifying laws and the best method of administering them : 

They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that 
they need not many. They very much condemn other nations 
whose laws, together with the commentaries on them, swell up 
to so many volumes ; for they think it an unreasonable thing to 
oblige men to obey a body of laws that are both of such a bulk 
and so dark as not to be read and understood by every one of -the 
subjects. 

They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as 
a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise the matters and 
to wrest the law ; and therefore they think it is much better that 
every man should plead his own cause and trust it to the judge 
as in other places the client trusts it to a counseler. By this 
means they both cut off many delays and find out truth more 
certainly ; for after the parties have laid open the cause, without 



The Ordinance of Justice. 73 

those artifices which lawyers are apt to suggest, the judge exam- 
ines the whole matter and supports the simplicity of such, well- 
meaning persons whom otherwise crafty men would be sure to 
run down ; and thus they avoid those evils which appear very 
remarkably among all those nations that labor under a vast load 
of laws. Every one of them is skilled in their law ; for as it is 
a very short study, so the plainest meaning of which words are 
capable is always the sense of their laws. And they argue thus : 
All laws are promulgated for this end, that every man may know 
his duty; and therefore the plainest and most obvious sense of 
the words is that which ought to be put upon them ; since a 
more refined exposition cannot be easily comprehended, and 
would only serve to make the laws become useless to the greater 
part of mankind, and especially to those who need most the di- 
rection of them : for it is all one not to make a law at all or to 
couch it in such terms that without a quick apprehension and 
much study a man cannot find out the true meaning of it, since 
the generality of mankind are both so dull and so much em- 
ployed in their several trades that they have neither the leisure 
nor the capacity requisite for such an inquiry. ( " Utopia," p. 83.) 

RULES OF EVIDENCE. 

Courts and judicial officers should clearly understand 
that they are given authority for other purposes than to 
condemn the innocent or acquit the guilty. But the very 
things that they ought not to do are sometimes done, and 
things which they ought to do are often left undone. We 
have glanced at some of the errors that exist, in the 
very body and structure of the law itself, even in Chris- 
tian and civilized nations, and they are much greater in 
heathen countries. We have also considered some of the 
defects attending its administration, and we now come to 
examine another branch of the science — the rules of evi- 
dence. These ought to be such as would guide judicial tri- 
bunals in giving the proper degree of credence to conflict- 
ing and different kinds of testimony, and also would keep 
out extraneous matter so as to lead by the shortest and 



74 National Salvation, * 

most direct way to correctly ascertain the fact; but at pres- 
ent this branch of the science is in such an imperfect state, 
and its true principles are so little understood, that the time 
of the courts is often uselessly consumed in considering 
things irrelevant; and sometimes, by the very errors and 
unsoundness in the rules of evidence, judicial tribunals are 
prevented from coming to just conclusions. Recently the 
deputy treasurer of a county in Arkansas conspired with 
others for the robbery of the public funds in his charge. 
After it was accomplished, suspicion pointing to him, he 
was brought before the grand jury, and, on examination, re- 
vealed the plot. He then offered to give testimony that 
would convict his associates in crime if a nolle pros, were en- 
tered in his case ; but as he was not only in the conspiracy, 
but had also violated his oath of office, his proposition was 
declined, although he was told that such a course would 
likely procure for him some mitigation of the sentence. 
When arraigned he pleaded " not guilty." The State then 
proved that the safe was in his charge ; that it was opened 
in the usual way by some one who knew the combination ; 
and that the lock was afterward mutilated to create the im- 
pression that the safe w^as broken into by a burglar. They 
then produced his own testimony before the grand jury. 
Upon this evidence he was convicted, but appealed to the 
Supreme Court. At the same time a somewhat notorious 
case was pending in the Appellate Court of New York, 
and upon identically the same grounds. Jacob Sharp had 
bribed the Board of Aldermen in order to get a railroad 
franchise, and a link in the chain of evidence that secured 
his conviction w^as his own testimony before a committee of 
the Senate. The Appellate Courts in both cases reversed 
the judgment, holding that the rules of evidence and con- 
stitutional rights forbid a person's own testimony being 
used against him without his consent. But if the object of 



The Ordinance of Justice. 75 

evidence is (as it should be) to get at the truth, why not re- 
quire the person who knows most to explain ? A court is 
not always obliged to be governed by such evidence, but it 
ought certainly to have authority to make the examination 
and let such testimony as it would develop be allowed to 
pass for what it is worth. 

In the statutes that God gave Israel (Ex. xxii. 7-13) it 
was ordained that when a person was in possession of an- 
other's property, as was this deputy treasurer, and it was 
missing, and the thief could not be discovered by searching, 
the court should then examine the person who last had 
charge of the missing property, and require from him an 
oath that he had not put his hands unto his neighbor's 
goods. This is a very proper and reasonable procedure, 
and one to which no honest man would object. 

Experience proves that the true rule of evidence in such 
cases is much better stated by Moses than by Professor 
Greenleaf ; and that confession, when verified by corrobo- 
rating circumstances, is evidence of a reliable character; 
and that there may be no doubt about this character of 
evidence and of the correctness of this method of proced- 
ure, we have examples that are recorded for our guidance — 
as much so as the doctrine of the new birth. When Achan 
was taken by lot it was not accepted as conclusive evidence 
of guilt — only a mere presumption that gave the judges the 
right to interrogate him, as in the case of a person who had 
been in charge of missing property; but it still took two 
witnesses to a violation of law before he could be condemned 
to death. The use of the lot was not, as some imagine, a 
blind, fanatical, hap-hazard way of deciding a matter; it 
merely left the person upon ^vhom it fell in much the same 
position as if a modern grand jury had returned an indict- 
ment against him, Joshua, acting as a judge, and proceed- 
ing strictly in accordance with the law, said unto Achan : 



76 National Salvation. 

" My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, 
and make confession unto him ; and tell me now what thou 
hast done; hide it not from me." And when he made his 
acknowledgments, that was one witness; and w^hen messen- 
gers were sent to search for the coveted property, " and, be- 
hold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it," that 
was a corroborating circumstance equivalent to a second 
witness, and established the legal proof. If this method of 
administering justice is to-day avoided by every tribunal in 
the land, all must admit that it w^as a very simple, direct, 
and reasonable way, and did the accused no injustice; for it 
was clearly proved that he had violated the law and had 
caused thereby the death of thirty-six men and impaired the 
courage of the army. 

Why should a community be required, as in the case of 
Sharp ^ or this deputy treasurer, to go to enormous expense 
in procuring evidence when it would often be found wholly 
unnecessary if upright and competent judges were allowed 
to examine the accused or make use of their own former 
testimony, giving them full liberty to explain. The Bible 
will not sanction torture, that the accused may become a 
prosecuting witness, although it was the usual judicial cus- 
tom in barbarous times. In the rebound the courts, like 
the pendulum of a clock, seem to have gone to the other 
extreme; and by so doing have missed the true scriptural 
rule of evidence, although they adhere to it in the case of 
stolen property. But it is just as proper and reasonable to 
proceed in accordance with the rule of evidence laid down 
by Moses, and require the person who was last in possession 
of missing property, when it cannot otherwise be explained, 
to tell what he knows of its being lost, as it is to require 
the person found in possession of stolen property to tell how 
it has been received or stand condemned for the offense. 

^ The costs to the State in the Sharp case were $25,000. 



The Ordinance of Justice. 77 

But justice was outraged by the ruling of these high tri- 
bunals, and a wrong done to society and an injury to the 
public welfare when the just sentence of these two men was 
set aside, although there was no possible doubt of their guilt, 
and that they had done their respective communities very 
great harm, and that thousands of dollars of the savings of 
honest industry had been expended in an eifort to bring 
them to justice. How was it done? By exalting error 
above truth, by considering Professor Greenleaf a better 
authority on the rules of evidence than Moses, and esteem- 
ing more highly fallible human enactments than statutes in 
the formation of which the Holy Ghost had guided the pen 
of the lawgiver. How long will it take the nations to learn 
the value and wisdom of the Holy Scriptures? Lord, 
cause this book to make the scales fall from the eyes of the 
nations, that they may speedily see the beauty of holiness 
until they will all with one accord, earnestl}^ and in all 
things, desire the coming of Christ's kingdom. Amen. 



ReflBinption and Lilertn. 

" Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants 
thereof." — Leviticus xxv, 10. 

" I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands." — Jeremiah ii. 20. 

" The yield of a land depends less on the fertility of its soil 
than on the freedom of its inhabitants."— Jfon^esgm^u. 

" If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed ; 
and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 
—John viii. 31, 82. 

" Liberty cannot long endure in any country where the tend- 
ency of legislation is to concentrate wealth in the hands of a 
few." — Daniel Webster. 

" I will call unto the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain ; 
and ye shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which 
ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So 
Samuel called unto the Lord ; and the Lord sent thunder and 
rain that day : and all the people greatly feared the Lord and 
Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy 
servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not : for we have 
added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king." — 1 Samuel 
xii, 17-19. 

LIBERTY is of the utmost importance to a nation. If 
a people are going to do their best, they must have 
autonomy and free institutions and republican government. 
It is always a great misfortune when it becomes necessary 
to reduce a whole people to a state of jDolitical tutelage and 
servitude, for no nation has ever risen high when thus 
dominated and ruled by another. Indeed, it may be said 
that if it is undesirable for a nation to be ruled by another 
from without, it is equally undesirable that it be ruled by 



Redemption and Liberty, 79 

a privileged class from within. A privileged class, or order 
of nobility, is constituted by taking something from one and 
giving it to another. When one class is made masters that 
means that it is ordained for another class to be servants. 
When twelve men own half the area of Scotland, and a few 
thousand persons own all the real estate in Ireland, that 
means that a great many in these two countries must be land- 
less. When the power to rule is all given to one man, and 
a king or emperor is created, that means that the rights of 
governing are taken away from every other inhabitant of 
the nation. Redemption in Christ teaches not merely the 
doctrines of liberty, but, what is far more, by the " hunger 
and thirst after righteousness " it creates, nations are pre- 
pared for its reception and preservation. While the good 
moral character of the population is a matter of great im- 
portance under any form of government, in a republic 
where the people rule it is indispensable to their welfare and 
safety. Let it be known that the first republic in the world 
was founded under the direct influence and guidance of re- 
demption. It was not merely the earliest by nearly a thou- 
sand years, but it was in several important particulars the 
best the world has ever known ; the United States of Amer- 
ica is not excepted. It assumed that all had rights that 
should be guarded, and it threw the shield of law about the 
poorest, and even protected the brute creation or a bird's- 
nestin a pathway from unjust or cruel treatment. Its ideal 
was to have every man dwelling safely under his own vine 
and fig-tree, with Church and school facilities for all. While 
in Israel the priesthood might be considered a favored class, 
yet, as they were prohibited from owning land other than 
a town lot, and were dependent for support on the voluntary 
contributions of the people, their rule could never become 
oppressive. The plan of the Holy Scriptures in ordering 
the public aflFairs of the Israelites was to give a local govern- 



80 National Salvation, 

ment to every city and one to each tribe, and then to have 
a general government ruling over all, but each was possessed 
of full powers and was supreme in its own sphere. In the 
plan of the statesmen of Rome the imperial government pos- 
sessed all authority, and the provinces none only what they 
chose to delegate to a procurator, or deputy. On the con- 
trary, in Greece all authority was vested in the States and 
cities, and their general government was a loose federation 
without any power of its own. By rejecting the defects of 
both these systems, and uniting their excellences of giving 
local authority to the local government and imperial au- 
thority to the federal government, which is substantially the 
plan of the Constitution of the United States, it shows that 
in this particular w^e have just reached that degree of knowl- 
edge in political science that was possessed thirty-three hun- 
dred years ago by the Hebrew nation. Moreover, their gen- 
eral government not only directed in matters of war and 
diplomacy, but also guarded the moral, social, economic, 
sanitary, educational, and spiritual welfare of the people. 
And in all ages of the world what government has ever 
equaled it in conferring benefits on the people over whom 
it ruled ? The Lord Jesus to-day is the way, as he was then, 
to just such a government in principle for all the nations of 
the earth. 

Sin is what causes men to be selfish, oppressive, and ty- 
rannical. Wherever it abounds it appears in the form of 
unjust laws, that cause the administration of government, 
while favoring one class, necessarily to fall with burdensome 
weight upon some others; and where sin reigns, to darken 
the mind and obscure its perceptions of right and wrong, it 
must ever be so. Outside of the pales of redemption no peo- 
ple have ever had any true conception of justice or human 
rights. Viewed from the stand-point of all the inhabitants, 
the liberties of Greece or Rome were very imperfect, A 



Redemption and Liberty. 81 

person might search the laws of Sparta and Lacedsemon 
through, and not find any thing like a declaration that *^ all 
men are created equal/' or a bill of rights securing it to them, 
as it is in the Constitution of the United States. And he 
might to-day do the same with the laws of any heathen state, 
and his search would be equally fruitless. The gospel de- 
clares that man was made in the image of God, and in him 
is neither Jew nor Greek, Scythian nor barbarian, bond nor 
free ; and that he made of one blood all nations, and that 
every one is possessed of a soul so valuable that Jesus died 
for its redemption. But it is only where this gospel is 
preached in all its fullness that Governments accept the 
doctrine that all should be protected "in life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness." Rome was a republic, 
but the patrician class had so many privileges that they 
might be considered as being above the law, while the ple- 
beians had so few that their liberty was little more than a 
choice of masters, and their slaves were never considered as 
more than property, without any rights whatever. It was 
not so in Judea. In Israel there was only one and the same 
law for all, whether strangers or Israelites; and there was 
no one there above the law, and none so far beneath it that 
it refused to give them shelter and protection; and it was a 
merciful one. If a man was thriftless and a bad manager, he 
still went free from his debts at the beginning of every seven 
years; but perpetual slavery was the penalty for insolvency 
in Rome. Much of late is being said in the United States 
abo^it the rapid accumulations of vast fortunes and of mo- 
nopolies in oil, in land, and in railroad franchises; and the 
laws are silent and powerless to prevent the evil. It was 
not so in Judea. There the homestead was so carefully 
guarded that a monopoly in land could not exist, and their 
income tax would soon have lessened the number of the 
Goulds, the Astors, and the Vanderbilts of that time. At 
6 



82 National Salvation. 

present we have no way to correct many evils but by some 
wdld, mad revolution that comes along every century or tw^o, 
and like a tornado levels all before it. But in Judea they 
had an orderly plan that operated every fifty years to pre- 
vent the rich from getting richer and the poor from getting 
poorer. When the constitution of the commonw^ealth of 
Israel is fairly studied, it will appear to be a merciful plan 
of government that guarded and protected the weak against 
the strong, and gave equal rights to all and special privi- 
leges to none — just such legislation as every people on the 
face of the earth to-day needs; and the Lord Jesus Christ is 
the door now, as he was then, to just such a government 
and to deliverance for all the downtrodden of earth, either 
from the oppression of a foreign state or a privileged class 
among themselves. 

Andrew Carnegie has recently written '^ Triumphant 
Democracy," a work showing the superiority of republics 
over monarchies. He shows that, in wealth, in commerce, 
in agriculture, in manufactures, in arts, in literature, in 
education, in the push and enterprise of their inhabitants, 
in the social and political condition of their people, in their 
resources in time of war, and in the absence of a standing 
army in time of peace there is no comparison. Mr. Carne- 
gie might have added another chapter to his very interest- 
ing book, showing that republics have been singularly fruit- 
ful in eminent men. Why have not some eminent orators 
and great inventors appeared under the rigid iron despot- 
ism of Russia? The cause is manifest. Under such an op- 
pressive system of government their development is crushed ; 
but liberty affords the opportunity, gladly assists in their 
growth, and rejoices, as it were, to lend wings to the minds 
of its people; and the poet, the orator, and the inventor are 
as indigenous to the domain of a free republic, and may as 
copfidejitly be looked for there, as flowers in the spring. 



Redemption and Liberty. 83 

What a brilliant galaxy of illustrious personages have 
been produced in Judea, Greece, Rome, Genoa, Venice, 
France, England, and the United States, with even a meas- 
ure of liberty ! Blot out these few places from the world's 
history while they are under the influence of free institu- 
tions, and you take out nearly all its great poets, artists, 
orators, teachers, preachers, philosophers, historians, invent- 
ors, discoverers, explorers, warriors, statesmen, and law- 
givers. This is another proof of the wisdom and goodness 
of God in selecting this form of government for his chosen 
people; and when they turned it into a monarchy the 
change was only effected over the express warning and pro- 
test of Jehovah. Therefore, seeing that in every age of the 
world this form of government has been the best for the 
people, and has the divine sanction and approval above all 
others, do not ministers of religion make a cardinal mistake 
in opposing it and declaring free institutions to be of the 
devil? May it not be said about such, as the Lord said 
about some others in the days of Jeremiah, that "they 
prophesy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have 
I commanded, neither spake unto them. They prophesy 
lies unto you, and a false vision?" And yet this was sub- 
stantially the attitude of the ministry of the Episcopal 
Church in England during the sixteenth century, and of 
the ministry of the Catholic Church in France during the 
seventeenth. ^Nevertheless, the foundations of God standeth 
sure. The republic is the goal to which all naticms in their 
governmental institutions are tending. It existed in a very 
imperfect form in Greece or Rome; and look at the height 
to which they ascended! See the songs, the orations, and 
the histories they composed, the temples they built, the 
])rodigies of valor that their armies accomplished! Does 
any nation wish to ascend to a far higher plane of social 
and political liberty, where every right will be conceded 



84 National Salvation. 

and a freedom so perfect will become the heritage of all 
that there will be neither patricians nor proletarians, nei- 
ther lords nor commons, neither bond nor free, and neither 
male nor female? Behold the Lord Jesus calls all the 
world of mankind to just such a liberty, and the more peo- 
ple and nations accept his yoke and bear his burden the 
-more will they be delivered from wrong and injustice and 
every form of oppression. 

If freedom in the past enabled the mind to produce works 
that after the lapse of two thousand years are still for ex- 
cellency of their kind unsurpassed, let it be known that 
with age liberty has lost none of her power to give strength 
and sharpness and penetration to the intellect. If the 
United States has not as yet produced, in statuary painting 
or literature, any great works of art, it is only because the 
minds of her people have been engaged in bringing forth 
fruit in other directions. Their task was different from that 
of the nations of antiquity; and right well have they done 
their work. But the same brain and hand that conceived 
and has given to the world the reaper and mower, the cot- 
ton-gin, the electric telegraph, the lightning printing-press, 
anaesthetics to deaden pain, the way to manufacture India 
rubber, and, in two hundred and fifty years from its settle- 
ment bridged and spanned the continent with an iron road, 
could also have produced satires like Juvenal, tragedies like 
Sophocles, statuary like Phidias, history like Tacitus or Her- 
odotus, and painting that would have rivaled the " Transfig- 
uration" by Raphael and the ^' Last Judgment" by Mich- 
ael Angelo. 

That the mind of the people of the United States has 
taken a more useful and practical direction is undoubtedly 
due to the influences of redemption. Selfishness is inherent 
in the natural man, and paganism and all false religions 
are unable to restrain its power. This causes slavery and 



Redemption and Liberty. 85 

the consequent degradation of labor which, by reason of 
sin, is and always will be the normal condition of heathen- 
dom everywhere. So great is the darkness of sin that it 
rarely ever occurs to any one living in a country dominated 
by a false religion that there could be any way to lessen 
the burden of toil. Only where is heard the voice of Him 
who called unto all who labor, and promised them rest, 
that inventions appear which make its realization possible ; 
and none but a people animated with the freedom and intel- 
ligence that redemption brings would ever have invented 
the labor-saving contrivances that may to-day be found in 
the patent-office at Washington, and are the wonder and 
admiration of the whole world. Indeed, only as a people 
receive and possess the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ are 
they prepared to completely understand and obtain the full 
benefits of all these ingenious contrivances. 

Liberty must be in accordance with justice; otherwise a 
trespass on the rights of others, even if done in its name, is 
still oppression. Redemption lays the foundation of na- 
tional liberty by at once offering each individual the love 
of righteousness and intellectual freedom. As he accepts 
the first he becomes possessed of the second; and by faith- 
fulness it can be preserved even under the most adverse 
outward circumstances. St. Paul endured hunger, perils 
on the land, perils on the sea, perils from his own country- 
men; bonds, scourging, and imprisonment were his fate in 
many cities; his friends were few, and none of them stood 
by him. When his appeal was heard at Rome he was in 
prison, thinly clad, and needed the cloak that he left at 
Troas; but, amid all these adverse circumstances, as you 
read his writings you are at once convinced that, although 
his body was bound with chains, the iron of oppression had 
not entered his soul, and his mind was still free. It was 
not always this way with him: there was a time when his 



86 National Sahation, 

mind was chained to the letter and form of old, worn-out 
ceremonies in religion ; but he had an experience while on 
his journey to Damascus that opened the eyes of his under- 
standing and set his mind free, and the '^ truth as it is in 
Jesus " will do the same for any one who receives and re- 
tains it. Valuable as this freedom of the mind is to the 
welfare of a nation, it is not in the power of a political de- 
cree to confer it, although the State, by producing favora- 
ble conditions, may, and can, assist. It is sin that binds 
and enslaves the mind, and only what removes it can give 
it liberty. While sin remains it will always be in bondage 
to something that will be sure in the end to prove injurious. 
It may be to some form of vice, to fashion, to the fear of 
man, to vain and useless traditions, to signs, omens, lucky 
days, superstitions, fortune-telling, or, perhaps, to the teach- 
ings of a false religion. It is the fashion in China for la- 
dies to have small feet, and by binding them for years, and 
suffering great pain, they are made so. Occasionally, un- 
der the influence of missionaries, a family is led to see its 
folly, and decide that their girls shall not endure such mis- 
ery or be that way deformed. A person unacquainted with 
human nature might think that surely in that family there 
would be no objections; but frequently the girls themselves 
are among the first to protest; and often, when their feet 
are not bandaged, will do it themselves, and endure its ex- 
cruciating torture rather than be out of the fashion. This 
shows the hold that sin has on the natural mind and the 
radical defect in the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, that 
had such a large influence when the Constitution of the 
United States was formed, and are still accepted by a great 
many. 

The underlying principle of Rousseau's " Emile " and 
" The Contract Social " is that nature is pure and may with 
safety be followed; and his ideal of education and the 



Redemption and Liberty, 87 

State was simply a return to nature. Adam, conformable 
to the laws of God, and before he fell, might have followed 
the instincts of his nature, but not always w^ith safety aft- 
erward ; and neither can any of his posterity. We can 
see the same principle illustrated on a much larger scale 
when whole nations exchange freedom for bondage. The 
fourth of July orator generally represents the chief danger 
to popular liberty as coming from a designing, ambitious 
man seizing on supreme power, and suppressing the liberties 
of the people and bringing all in subjection to his authority. 
The reverse is usually the case. When the principles of a 
people become corrupt, they invariably surrender their own 
independence, and offer their liberty and privileges to some 
one, and the only question before that person is whether 
he will accept it, or let them give it to the next successful 
military commander. It was that way in Greece. It is 
true that Philip and Alexander both wanted supreme powd- 
er; but they never would have succeeded until the morals 
of the people had become so degenerate that a majority of 
the populace were quite as willing to confer it on them, 
even if it did subvert the liberty and independence of the 
Athenian republic. The sauie thing was enacted in Rome 
with Julius Csesar; in France, with Napoleon Bonaparte; 
and in Israel with Saul. These events prove the deceivable- 
ness of sin and the enemy it is to political liberty, and that 
redemption, by delivering from it and giving freedom to 
the mind, lays strong one of the main foundations of a re- 
public. 

When intellectual freedom and the facilities of obtaining 
information exist to any considerable extent among the peo- 
ple they create a formidable weapon to destroy despotism 
in what is termed public opinion. If if existed to-day in 
the empire of Russia, even without a constitution or a leg- 
islation, it would prevent many of the atrocious crimes on 



88 National Salvation, 

humanity of that Government in banishing so many of its 
citizens to Siberia, and in the blood tax in men and mate- 
rial of war it exacts for the support of its enormous stand- 
ing armies. But the trouble with the people of Russia is 
that sin has enslaved their minds, and in addition they have 
been kept in such ignorance that the public there has no 
opinion. This leaves the government altogether in the 
hands of a privileged class, and to be administered mainly 
for the benefit of the office-holders, from the czar on down ; 
and the nations of the past have nearly all been ruled in the 
same way. They have usually been controlled by a small 
privileged class (generally hereditary), who have looked on 
the people as having but few rights, and exacted a large 
compensation for their services in governing. But the plan 
of government by representatives makes it practicable to 
do without a privileged class, particularly an hereditary one, 
and is in political science one of the greatest discoveries of 
modern times. The statesmen of antiquity knew nothing 
of it, although Moses evidently had the germ of the idea in 
the exact census he took of each tribe at Sinai and in the 
seventy elders that were set apart and for a brief period 
were associated with him in the government. The free 
commonwealths that have heretofore existed were confined 
to the people living in a single city or a narrow locality so 
that all who were enfranchised could meet in one place to 
express their suffrage; and until the method of governing 
through representatives chosen by the people was discovered 
it would seem that they could only become large by ceasing 
to be democracies. But with this discovery and a percep- 
tion that the interest of each man, family, and community 
is identical with the welfare of all mankind, it becomes pos- 
sible for republics to exist that shall not only include sixty 
millions with diversified industries, and stretch from ocean 
to ocean as we now have it in the United States, but even 



Redemption and Liberty, 89 

in extent become continental, and in time ecumenical, and 
eventually include 

Every kindred, every tribe. 
On this terrestrial ball. 

With the telegraph, the printing-press, cheap postage, and 
the great majority of the people able to read, it is possible 
by representatives not only to have a republic that shall 
rule over thickly populated countries and a wide extent of 
territory, but also to lodge a large share of political power 
directly with the people. Through the newspapers of to-day 
a question even as intricate as a treaty with China, the coin- 
age of silver, or the annexation of Canada, can be spread 
before the whole nation of sixty million inhabitants until 
they fully understand it, and be decided directly by their 
votes easier than any similar question of public policy could 
have been understood and decided in Rome by all its free- 
men when that city was a republic, or when Athens was a 
democracy by those who possessed its franchise, or at Shiloh 
in a general assembly of all Israel. Questions like the tar- 
iff are to-day being referred and decided not in Congress, 
but at the ballot-box, and by the whole people .of the Unit- 
ed States. 

At the bottom oppression always rests on some sort of 
mental slavery. If a people will not through Christ yield 
themselves to the "reasonable service" of the only true 
God, and partake of the mental freedom his great salvation 
offers, their minds by reason of sin will be enslaved to error 
in some form, and a sacerdotal class will rise up and found 
an empire on their delusions and bind upon their shoulders 
some grievous bui'dens. They will " shut up the kingdom 
of heaven against men " by inventing a whole lot of cere- 
monies and recommend them as founded in truth, and they 
will be accepted by an already intellectually enslaved peo- 
ple. In these vain rites people will spend money for that 



90 National Salvation, 

which is not the bread of life, and their time and labor for 
that which will not elevate them, or give them intellectual 
freedom, or cause them to be victorious, or satisfy the 
wants of the immortal soul. While not teaching the truth, 
these substitutes for it will leave the jDeople enchained to 
strong delusions, and under their influence they will do 
things so foolish and sometimes so cruel that their bare re- 
cital cannot but cause a shudder. A few years ago at 
Cheefoo, in China, a bridge was washed away, and it was 
said that that the god of the river was angry, and that a 
sacrifice was required. When they came to build another, 
to give it strength and insure its permanence, so strong were 
their delusions that they buried alive eight children— four 
boys under the foundations on the west, and four girls un- 
der the foundations on the east. They were taken from 
some poor families that were each given a considerable do- 
nation, and as the last bridge has stood, it is there accepted 
as convincing proof thas such a ^'slaughter of the inno- 
cents " was the orthodox thing. Alas that sin by reason 
of vain superstitions and an unfaithful ministry could so 
deceive and mislead men with the brain to plan and execute 
such a work, for it was really a fine structure! 

The evils of mental slavery do not end with the oppres- 
sions of a sacerdotal class. If a people Avill not become in- 
tellectually free and do their own political thinking, an- 
other class in the State will be needed; and, for a good 
round price in offices, privileges, and emoluments, will man- 
age their governmental affairs. Let England serve as an 
example. There the queen, for her services in governing 
the realm, is allowed a whole retinue of domestic servants, 
maids of honor, and gentlemen in waiting; with a free ship 
or train whenever she wishes to travel, and several castles 
as residences, with their parks and drives — all kept up at the 
public expense. After every imaginable charge is provid- 



Redemption and Liberty. 91 

ed for — even down to an allowance for her huntsman and 
dogs — she is given, over and above all expenses, $300,000 
per annum and the revenue of the Duchy of Lancaster, equal 
to $250,000 additional. Her oldest son gets $200,000 and 
the revenue of the Duchy of Cornwall, which makes his in- 
come equal to $500,000 per annum ; and his wife is allowed 
$10,000 more, which amount, the law provides, in case she 
becomes a widow, is to be increased to $150,000 a year. 
Then the queen also has several younger sons that get 
$125,000 apiece, and her daughters get $30,000 each a year. 
These amounts are given to them solely because they are 
her children, and no service whatever is required in return. 
It is true that she is a motherly old woman, and often ap- 
points her sons and sons-in-law to lucrative commands in 
the army, navy, or places in the civil service; but they al- 
Avays draw the salary of any office they may fill, in addition 
to receiving their allowance as her children ; and this is 
but a specimen of what, on a smaller scale, is imitated in 
the counties by the nobility. When the total expenses to 
the nation of just the royal family are computed it must 
be in the neighborhood of five millions a year. These ex- 
penses are not peculiar to the queen, but belong to royal- 
ty the round world over. Turkey is a poor country, but 
the private expenses of the sultan are seven millions per 
annum, every dollar of which, in one way or another, is 
wrung from the people by taxation. Every thing in Rus- 
sia is looked upon as to some extent belonging to the czar, 
and it is difficult to find out just what he receives; but it is 
certain that the imperial family costs Russia $10,000,000 
per annum, and a recent British Consular report estimates 
it at $12,500,000. The United States pays its President 
$50,000 a year — the one-hundredth part of what royalty 
costs England — and until recently has only been paying 
half that amount; and, in executive ability, hereditary roy- 



92 National Salvation. 

alty would be nowhere in a comparison, for a century, with 
the Presidents of the United States. Doubtless some one 
is now ready to say that if $50,000 a year is a fair com- 
pensation for the chief executive of a nation (as the expe- 
rience of the United States seems to prove), why does not 
some man or party rise up and, for the sake of justice and 
honesty, insist that the other ninety-nine one-hundred ths 
($4,950,000) now required to support the pride and luxury 
of royalty shall not any longer be taken from the people? 
The cause is not difficult to explain : The people there are 
mentally enslaved to the delusion that kings have a divine 
right to rule; and therefore royalty is an essential part of 
government, and necessary in order to give validity to the 
acts of the officers of State as prelates are in the Church to 
give efficacy to its sacraments; and it is only when this 
charm and spell is broken that they can be relieved from 
the enormous burdens of taxation that royalty imposes. 

Errors have their affinities, and between the fiction of 
the divine right of kings and prelatical succession the kin- 
ship is very close, and they mutually support each other. 
If the throne at Windsor were to fall, it would also bring 
dow^n with it my lord of Canterbury ; or if the latter were 
to sink and a ministry anointed of the Holy Ghost were to 
take its place, declaring " the whole counsel of God,'' the 
delusion under which the nation now labors in this matter 
would be dispelled, and at least the extortions of royalty 
would soon be a thing of the past. Of course the business 
of government cannot be carried on without agents, any 
more than that of railroading or publishing a newspaper. 
There must be some one to direct its policy, coin its money, 
collect its revenues, and administer justice in its name. 
Those who maintain order and transact the business of 
government contribute to the general w-elfare of society; 
and, like a physician or an architect, are entitled to a fair 



Redemption and Liberty, 93 

compensation for their services; but the millions paid to 
royalty in excess of a fair compensation, and for services 
requiring no greater skill than is daily exercised by the 
President of a bank or of a manufacturing corporation or 
of a large institution of learning, is that much most unjust- 
ly taken from the income of the clerk, laborer, mechanic, 
seamstress, merchant, farmer, and every inhabitant of the 
nation. Besides, the throne is an example to every one of 
the nobility, and the millions paid for the support of roy- 
alty must be multiplied many times before all the princes, 
dukes, earls, marquises, and lords in the kingdom have 
what luxury and extravagance demands. But the minds 
of the people are there enslaved to the idea of royalty and 
nobility, although the cost of its support is enormous; and 
the foundations of the nation's greatness and vast colonial 
possessions were not laid under monarchy, but under the 
rule of the Commonwealth; and that time is still the most 
brilliant period of their history. Yet, in the face of these 
facts, the judges there look wise, and decide that during that 
time, for want of royalty, no legal government existed, only 
what they term an interregnum. Nearly all the lawyers 
hold the same opinion, and the clergy of the national 
Church, almost to a man, teach and preach the doctrine; 
and, as Macaulay shows, nothing did more to produce the 
restoration than their sermons. It is bad enough to have 
the courts and lawyers take the wrong view of a question, and 
use their power and eloquence on the side of injustice, but 
it becomes a nuich more serious matter when the Church 
and ministry, who, above all other men, are set apart for 
the defense of truth in the earth, should become the advo- 
cates and champions of error, and that justice and right- 
eousness should both be made to cry out: '' I was wounded 
in the house of my friends!'' Yet both these learned pro- 
fessions there not only stand by and become accessories to 



94 Natiooial Salvation, 

the extortion and robbery under the forms of law of all 
these millions from the laboring classes, but also prostitute 
their talents and powers of eloquence and do all that they 
can to establish and increase the delusion under which it 
is done. Like Judas, they get a good many pieces of sil- 
ver for betraying truth. The Archbishop of Canterbury 
is paid by the crown $75,000 a year, and of York $50,000, 
and the inferior clergy in proportion. Doubtless many 
wonder at how such a course can be reconciled with minis- 
terial fidelity. While in things not directly sinful the min- 
istry may not contravene the existing order of things, but 
could they not occasionally, at proper times, set before their 
hearers and declare what the word of God says about the 
principles of government, and so, very greatly to their ben- 
efit, prepare them for their acceptance? Seeing that the 
Holy Ghost so clearly reveals a republican form of gov- 
ernment, and that experience demonstrates its superiority 
in elevating and quickening the intellect of a nation, and 
causing it to become fruitful of poets, orators, thinkers, in- 
ventors, and discoverers, does not duty and faithfulness to 
the welfare of the people and to God, who has revealed 
these things in his word, require that they should some- 
times be proclaimed. But if the Holy Scriptures warn and 
protest against monarchy, the " Thirty-nine Articles " and 
the " Book of Common Prayer " (which are there the stand- 
ards of faith) justify and uphold royalty to an extreme de- 
gree, and declare it to be the head of the Church as well as 
of the State; and in all ages the clergy as a class have al- 
ways given more attention to the opinions of the ruling 
class and to the denominational creed than to the word of 
God. When Aaron set up the golden calf at Sinai he 
gratified the elders, although he violated the word of God 
and left the people naked before their enemies. So do the 
clergy of the Church of England, when they teach the doc- 



Redemption and Liberty. 95 

trine of the divine right of kings, leave the people naked 
before the extortions of royalty and of the nobility — an ad- 
ditional proof that no principle revealed in the Holy Script- 
ures should be despised or contemned, but that all are of 
value. The remedy for these evils does not lie altogether 
in reforming the political constitutions of these nations and 
the polity and doctrines of their respective Churches, al- 
though both would undoubtedly be a great help. A 
Church has no right whatever to set up an odious and un- 
scriptural hierarchy contrary to the word of God. The 
only remedy that will ever be found thoroughly effectual 
to deliver a people from any and every form of oppression 
consists in the intellectual freedom and spiritual enfran- 
chisement of all of its inhabitants by the grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

A further proof that political enfranchisement does not 
give the intellectual liberty so essential to the citizens of a 
free government is found in the present condition of the 
Central and South American republics. The people there 
are possessed of full political power, and their constitutions 
and form of government are much the same as in the Unit- 
ed States. But the populations of these countries are almost 
entirely dominated by Catholicism, and that Church does so 
little to destroy sin, and has departed so far from the true 
faith, that the Holy Scriptures reveal that the people who 
are under its influence possess but few of the benefits of re- 
demption, and the intellectual quickening and freedom of 
mind that salvation in Christ alone confers are usually 
wanting to the great majority. This leaves the mass of the 
people, although they may be endowed with political pow- 
er, unable to direct the action of government, and of course 
some one must do it for them. This want is supplied in the 
City of Mexico (and it is the same at the other capitals) by 
a number of self-appointed men who understand the polite 



96 National Salvation, 

ical needs of the countr}^ and direct the whole machinery of 
goveiniment, even down to naming who shall be elected to 
office by the voters in each province; and while their com- 
pensation is not as extravagant as royalty and an heredi- 
tary nobility require, that they yet give themselves quite a 
substantial recompense in profitable subsidies and good fat 
government conti'acts for their assistance in ruling the na- 
tion. Indeed, one need not go outside of the United States 
to find the same thing. Here in cities a large part of the 
population worship the god Bacchus, and others Mammon, 
and so few through Christ worship the only true God who 
alone delivers from sin and gives full liberty to the mind 
that in many municipal districts a majority are mentally 
enslaved by these idolatries, and fail to do their own polit- 
ical thinking. As in Mexico, a number of astute politi- 
cians appoint themselves to manage the public business of 
the municipality, and in profitable paving and building 
contracts and in valuable water and street railway privi- 
leges they usually give themselves an ample reward. In 
Spanish America the combination is called a ''junta," and 
among English-speaking people a ring, but in principle they 
are both the same thing, and their existence in any place 
advertises the fact that there the people are endowed with 
political power, but are not doing their own governmental 
thinking. Occasionally w^here they exist the newspapers 
will announce that the ring under Boss Tweed or some one 
else, that has so long autocratically ruled such a city and 
enriched its members with millions, has at last been broke. 
But where the people are made supreme in government, and 
a majority of them will not do enough political thinking to 
direct its action, even if they do break one ring, as soon as 
the popular indignation over its discovery and peculations 
is past another will be formed, and the same things will 
be repeated unless a majoi;ity of the people are elevated to 



Redemption and Liberty, 97 

the standard of an intelligent and conscientious discharge 
of the duties of citizenship. How can this be done? The 
closer this important question is studied the more will it 
appear that its solution and the way of deliverance from 
the rapacity of rings and the greed and extravagance of 
royalty, as well as the only solid foundation for a republic, 
lie in Jesus Christ and all the inhabitants of a nation being 
in possession of the grace of redemption that alone delivers 
from sin, and gives intellectual freedom, and quickens and 
strengthens the mind of every one who accepts and retains 
the benefits of his great salvation. Glory be to God in Christ 
for the unsearchable riches of his grace, and all its marvel- 
ous blessings, but particularly that of intellectual freedom 
and civil liberty to all nations! 

Redemption also concerns itself with the economic inde- 
pendence of the people as well as their mental freedom. Lib- 
erty, when at its best, is the ripe fruit of moral, social, indus- 
trial, political, intellectual, and spiritual conditions, and so 
transcendent is the glory of Christ, and so full and varied 
the riches of his grace, that it is ready to assist in producing 
them all and among any people. The relation the inhabit- 
ants sustain to the soil is intimately connected with their wel- 
fare and freedom. In Great Britain large estates are the rule, 
only one in twenty in England owning any land whatever; 
in Scotland, one in twenty-four; and in Ireland, one in sev- 
enty-nine ; and to bring it down to these proportions, those 
who own an acre and less, and are much the more numer- 
ous, are all counted the same as a person who owns a large 
tract. Perhaps a better idea can be had of the immense 
difference there existing in reference to the ownership of 
land by stating that estates of from 5,000 to 10,000 acres 
are not uncommon,- and there are several of from 100,000 
to 500.000 acres, and three-fifths of the entire area of these 
countries is held in bodies of not less than a thousand acres 
7 



98 National Salvation. 

each. With one man owning an entire county, and the 
rest of the inhabitants mere ''tenants at will," such a peo- 
ple are not free, no matter what may be the political consti- 
tution of their government. The statesmen of the Common- 
wealth had a good opportunity to correct this great in- 
justice, but they failed to improve the occasion. The title 
to nearly all these large domains came by the sword, and 
in the contest between the king and Parliament their own- 
ers nearly all took sides with the former, and when he was 
defeated it gave Parliament both a legal and equitable right 
to annul their titles and open these vast estates for settle- 
ment in small tracts. Such a policy would have given near- 
ly every agriculturist a homestead, and by making as far as 
possible the cultivators owners of the soil would have given 
them an economic independence, and at the same time by 
giving so many a direct interest in the preservation of the 
Commonwealth would have greatly increased the founda- 
tion strength of the republic. It does seem strange that 
when the nation amid so much light came out from mon- 
archy and superstition, and at such an expense of blood and 
treasure moved for liberty, it did not occur to Cromwell 
or some of the leaders of Parliament that they must go far 
enough to break up these vast estates or the triumph of 
their labors could not be permanent. Any stopping short 
of that would leave the nation in the wilderness, and with- 
out a Red Sea in its rear it might certainly soon be ex- 
pected to go back into the Egypt of royalty and supersti- 
tion. The Levelers wanted to at once enter the promised 
land of equal rights for all; but the leaders of Parliament, 
like the faithless spies, so magnified the difficulties in the 
way and gave such an ill report of that region that the na- 
tion under their guidance made no advance in that direc- 
tion. The statesmen of the Commonwealth seemed to have 
only a narrow theological view of spiritual liberty. Its twi|i 



Redemption and Liberty, 99 

sister, an economic and industrial freedom for all the peo- 
ple, was not shining in their heavens, although redemption 
and the Holy Scriptures unfold both ideas, and they are 
mutually helpful to each other. They did ordain a system 
of fines and forfeitures on those who bore arms against the 
Parliament, and who were termed '' malignants," which the 
royalists, if they were able, paid or else their lapds were 
sold. But the policy of dividing the land in the sale so as 
to give the actual cultivators an opportunity to become its 
owners seems never to have been entertained by the polit- 
ical thinkers then in authority. If it was done, a constitu- 
ency would have been created that might safely be intrust- 
ed with political power, and would have been the steadfast 
friends of the Commonwealth, to assert and defend its prin- 
ples in an election or on the field of battle. But the oppor- 
tunity was allowed to pass without creating the constituen- 
cy so essential to the maintenance of a free government, and 
this blunder left the Commonwealth with Parliaments to be 
composed and influenced by those who owned such large 
estates that it acted like a bribe to incline them to royalty. 
Cromwell, with the best of motives, called several, and found 
that none of them could safely be trusted with the reins of 
government, and in a short time after each assembled was 
obliged to declare its dissolution. It is usually charged that 
after Cromwell's death General Monk betrayed the nation's 
freedom into the hands of Charles II. ; but when the history 
of that period is carefully studied in the light of a true polit- 
ical science it will appear that the unfaithfulness of the Par- 
liament leaders to libei'ty, in a broad sense of the word, w^as 
a much more potent cause than the treachery of Monk in 
the downfall of the English Commonwealth. 

It is now the fashion with many to sneer at the French 
Revolution, oblivious to the fact that, wnth all its excesses, 
it left France much better than it found it. The natioii 



100 National Salvation. 

then was in much the same condition that Russia is to-day. 
The rights of the many were all swallowed up in the enor- 
mous privileges granted to the few. It was a privilege to 
make salt, to fish, or to kill game; and a family must be- 
long to the nobility for several generations before any of its 
members could hold a commission in the army. Along 
with these odious privileges that, in some form, extended 
to almost every thing, three-fifths of the land was in the 
hands of the nobility and clergy ; and whatever belonged 
to either of these classes was privileged to be exempt 
from taxes. This left the burden of supporting the State 
to rest with crushing weight upon the body of the peo- 
ple. The nation at this time was without a written con- 
stitution or a legislature in which the people w^ere repre- 
sented. It is true that it had Parliaments which possessed 
some little authority in saying whether or not the edicts of 
royalty should be registered ; but in these bodies it was not 
manhood or womanhood that was represented, but proper- 
ty and titles, and their resistance to the king, whenever it 
occurred, was generally in defense of these things, and not 
of the rights of humanity. A judicial process of any sort 
w as not necessary for the arrest and confinement of any 
person. If a man was troublesome to the authorities, under 
a letter de cachet issued at the pleasure of the sovereign, 
and not subject to examination by a court, he could be in- 
carcerated for an indefinite period in some fortress, the 
same as to-day in Russia, on a simple order of the Govern- 
ment, he is banished to Siberia. Luxury, profligacy, and 
extravagance were in the chateaux of the nobility, produc- 
ing their rankest growth in the palaces of royalty, with 
their inevitable counterparts of poverty, squalor, w^retched" 
ness, and degradation in the hovels of the people. So cor- 
rupt w^as the Government that dissolute women about the 
king often received enormous sums, and were sometime^ 



Redemption and Liberty, 101 

able to plunge the nation into war and have their favorites 
appointed to chief commands in the army. The records 
of the royal exchequer show that in five years the king 
squandered on Madame Dubarry over seven million dol- 
lars of the public money — a sum equivalent to three or four 
times that amount now. Thomas Jefferson, who was after- 
ward President of the United States, was at this time (1785) 
representing it there, and writes : '^ Of the twenty million 
people supposed to be in France, I am of the opinion that 
there are nineteen millions more wretched, more accursed 
in every circumstance of human existence than the most 
conspicuously wretched individual of the whole United 
States." The Revolution was humanity's protest against 
these wrongs; and, with all its noyadings, fusilladings, 
and guillotining, it must be confessed that it had justice 
on its side. The reformers of France did not let the op- 
portunity pass of making their work permanent, like the 
statesmen of the English Commonwealth. In two sweep- 
ing decrees the Convention opened a new world to the na- 
tion. One abolished all titles and all privileges, and as- 
serted the equal rights of all men ; and the other confiscated 
the estates of all who left the kingdom. As the owners 
of nearly all the large estates emigrated when the Rev- 
olution became triumphant, their absence gave an oppor- 
tunity to destroy that system of land tenures which the po- 
litical leaders then in power were not slow to use. The ef- 
fect of these two decrees gave industrial freedom to the na- 
tion, and made nearly every agriculturist the owner of the 
land he cultivated. The registry of France now shows one 
person in seven to be an owner of real estate, and this ratio 
proves that the great majority of families must own the home- 
stead in which they live. And the general ownership of 
land has done more than any thing else to give industrial 
liberty to the French and make them a free people. Since 



102 National Salvation, 

then France has repeatedly been a republic, although men- 
tally not near so well prepared as England for full political 
liberty. But in the latter country, since the restoration, a 
republic has not even been seriously thought of for now up- 
ward of two centuries. It is probable that nothing has done 
more to prevent it and retard the political enfranchisement 
of all the people than the vast landed estates which are there 
created and preserved by the policy of royalty and the law 
of primogeniture. 

Catholicism had full control of France for a thousand 
years before the Revolution. Doubtless the thought has oc- 
curred to many, ''What were the clergy doing all that time, 
that they allowed society to sink so low ? " When the watch- 
man sees danger approaching he is to blow the trumpet 
and sound an alarm. When the wolves come against the 
sheep the dogs are to bark. Why did not some of the cler- 
gy, like John the Baptist, gird up their loins and harden 
their spirits, and rebuke profligacy and injustice and inhu- 
manity, even if they were found on the throne or among the 
nobility? How could they stand by and see nineteen mill- 
ions ground down and impoverished to gratify the pride, 
avarice, and sensuality of the other one million? Why 
did not some of them occasionally mount the cathedral 
pulpit and open the word of the Lord and show that God 
hates robbery, even if it is done under the forms of law and 
with the sanction and approval of Government? There are 
two main difficulties in the way of Catholicism accomplish- 
ing the work of redemption, and one of them consists in 
its unscriptural form of Church government. The Church 
that will not adopt the governmental principles of God's 
word is opening the way for its own corruption, and setting 
an example that will encourage oppressions and usurpa- 
tions in the State, and putting on what will prove a hin- 
derance to the largest and most effective service that it could 



Redemption and Liberty. 103 

have rendered in the vineyard of redemption. If the 
Church will adopt imperialism, the State cannot well rise 
above it, and must remain despotic, although it is manifest 
that where there is intelligence and a love of justice and 
righteousness among the people the superiority of a re- 
publican form of government is beyond question. Even 
where these favorable conditions do not exist, and with all 
that can be said against democracies and mob rule, it is 
probable that the facts of history would show that popular 
governments have less crimes to answer for than monarch- 
ies or imperialism. Absolution has not only an undesira- 
ble influence on the people who are that way ruled, but a 
still more unfavorable effect on the character of those who 
exercise its vast authority. That there have been men 
clothed with despotic power, and who did not abuse it, like 
Moses or Aristides, is true; but history does not record a 
single instance of a class given such authority that their 
acts did not soon become a category of abuses. And for 
the real work of ruling in righteousness, the absolutism in 
Church or State that does not submit its acts to the people 
or their representatives for confirmation is much weaker 
for good than the Government that does, and more apt to 
become suspicious and desire the power to punish any one 
who criticises it adversely. 

The history of the Catholic Church in this particular is 
well known, and Russia is an example of the workings of 
the same principle in the State. The latter to-day stands 
ready to banish to Siberia or lay the knout on the back of 
any one who differs from it; and even in times of peace ex- 
acts a ^' blood tax " of 700,000 men for its army, and the 
money to support them. But all that merely advertises 
the fact that the Government is there so weak that it can- 
not bear criticism, and that it takes that many bayonets to 
keep the throne from falling. What does such a Govern- 



104 National Salvation, 

ment for the happiness and education of its people or in 
developing the resources of the nation? Almost nothing, 
for all its energies are expended in sustaining despotism 
and in crushing the popular desire for freedom. It is the 
same with a Church that founds its government on unscript- 
ural principles: so much of its strength must necessarily 
be expended in defending its polity that it has little left for 
the destruction of sin and the edification of the people in 
righteousness. It ought to be known that a Church has 
no more right to reject the governmental piinciples of God's 
word in framing its polity, than it has to reject its doctrinal 
teachings in forming its theology. The Church that, contra- 
ry to the word of God, will build up a huge ecclesiasticism 
and crown it with a vast hierarchy of ministers centering 
in a Pope is thereby hindered and prevented from rendering 
its largest degree of service in the work of redemption ; and 
also becomes the ally, and in a great measure by its exam- 
ple the cause, of despotism in the State, and the enemy and 
destroyer of popular freedom in nations. In the nature of 
things a Church with such a polity will not afford its min- 
isters the liberty necessary in rebuking aristocratic vices 
and the avarice of a privileged class. On account of the 
hostility it would be certain to provoke, very few clergy- 
men are willing to attack these things; and the few who 
are in a Church with such a government generally find 
themselves in a conflict with the chief priests, who almost 
invariably side with the rich and opulent; and the end 
of such a contest usually is that the prophet perishes in Je- 
rusalem. (Luke xiii. 3.) 

Catholicism, in addition to its unscriptural form of 
Church government, has a number of sacraments, but chief- 
ly that of transubstantiation and the mass, for which it 
has no sufficient warrant in the w^ord of God. These are 
preached on and emphasized to such an extent in the min- 



Redemption and Liberty, 105 

istrations of the Church that many are led to rest in them, 
and not seek that spiritual life that brings a present and 
conscious triumph over sin, and is the very essence of 
the gospel of Christ. If some still receive the gift of the 
Holy Ghost, they do it without the help of those vain cere- 
monies, and they are but few. On inquiry it will appear 
that the great majority of the members of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church are without that deliverance from sin and the 
quickening of the Spirit that is the very soul of mental 
liberty for the individual and the great animating and in- 
spiring cause of popular freedom in nations. 

For the nation that walks in the light of God there is, 
first, a personal deliverance from sin for all of its inhabit- 
ants; second, a political freedom through the Government 
not recognizing any caste or privileged class, but according 
equal rights to all; and third, while not destroying private 
property, provision is made by a suitable public policy for 
preserving the social and industrial freedom of all the peo- 
ple. This latter was secured to the Hebrews by land law'S, 
which gave each family a homestead, and ordained that, if 
sold, it could at any time be redeemed, and even without any 
redemption it should be restored at the end of every fifty 
years; by a generous hospitality, particularly at all the great 
national gatherings, when rich and poor met on an equality ; 
by declaring a release from all debts and from all servitude 
every seventh year, and that what grew in the fields that 
year was to be common property for every one to use as 
they had need ; by enacting that the harvest should not be 
gleaned or the corners of the fields reaped by their owners, 
and that a sheaf forgotten was also to be left there for the 
poor and for the widow and orphan ; and by the tithe law, 
which was virtually a land and income tax, and supplied 
(free, if needed) every one with preaching, teaching, medical 
attendance, and a Levite learned in the law to see that jus- 



106 National Salvation, 

tice was faithfully administered in the courts. The wisdom 
and experience of ages concentrated on these principles 
does not show that any of them are unsound; and while 
the letter of them has passed away, their spirit, like their 
author, is eternal ; and through the sufferings and death of 
Christ their benefits are now made accessible to all nations. 
It may not be amiss to consider here to what extent they 
are at present being observed in the United States. 

Where so much labor is performed with the locomotive, 
cotton-gin, and reaper and mower; where thread is spun 
and woven into cloth and made into garments by machin- 
ery; where grain is sowed, reaped, threshed, and ground 
into flour without being touched by the hand of man; and 
where the same skill and labor-saving contrivances are used 
in other callings, it might be expected that such a country 
would rapidly increase in wealth.*^ The census for 1860 re- 
ported the property of all the people at sixteen billions of dol- 
lars. In spite of the losses of war and the emancipation of 
what was valued at one and a half billions of slave property, 
so great was the recuperative power of a free people that in 

■^Spofford, in the ^^ American Almanac," gives the aggregate 
and per capita wealth of the United States as follows : 

National wealth. Per Capita. 

In 1850 $ 7,135,780,228 $308 

In 1860 16,159,616,068 514 

In 1870 30,068,518,507 780 

In 1880 43,642,000,000 870 

Counting five persons to a family, this would give a general av- 
erage to each household in 1880 of |4,350. Not one family in 
fifty, and perhaps not one in eighty, have this much property. 
Without diminishing individual thrift and enterprise, to adjust 
the production of wealth in such a way as to secure its more 
general distribution among all the people is evidently a problem 
that American statesmanship must soon solve, if it would see 
the liberty and freedom of the nation preserved. 



Redemption and Liberty, 107 

1870 its property was tweuty-four and a half billions, and 
in 1880 forty-three billions in round numbers. This proves 
that, even allowing for the increase in population, the na- 
tion has doubled in wealth per capita in less than twenty- 
five years ; but that surely cannot truthfully be said of the 
. income and projoerty of the clerk, laborer, mechanic, and 
small farmer. What, then, is becoming of the increase? 
Are a few getting the lion's share, and the great majority 
of the population reaping but little benefit from all these 
inventions and labor-saving contrivances? 

Ill fares the land to hast'ning ills a prey. 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 

Eminent statisticians* estimate that one-half of the total 
wealth of the nation is now held by 25,000 persons. Count- 
ing the population at 60,900,000, and allowing 5 persons to 
a family, that means that in 400 families there is 1 that has 
as much wealth as the other 399. In assessed valuation all 
the property in any territory, and in several of the States, 
does not aggregate a hundred millions; but there are sev- 
eral individuals in the United States worth this amount. 
No public policy should be adopted that would in the least 
hinder thrift and industry ; but in so far as these vast accu- 
mulations are caused by the failure of the laws to guard the 
general welfare against the selfishness and covetousness and 
grasping avarice of those who make haste to be rich, it 
ought, in this particular, to be at once corrected; for such 
great differences in wealth affect the social equilibrium of 
the people; and its preservation is a matter of prime import- 

'^ See two interesting articles on this subject in " The Fo- 
rum " for September and November, 1889, by Thomas G. Sher- 
man. These estimates may not be exactly correct, but there can 
be no question about the general drift toward a plutocracy and 
the concentration of vast wealth in the hands of a few. 



108 • National Salvation, 

ance in a free republic. Forty years ago the difference so- 
cially between a stage-driver and the owner of the line was 
small, and their families met nearly on an equality ; but to- 
day there is a wide social difference between the conductor of 
a train and a director of the road ; and the gulf between their 
families is so great as to be almost impassable. The same 
social separations have gone on in other callings, like shoe- 
making, watch-making, blacksmithing, tailoring, and weav- 
ing ; and the distance between the extremes of society is 
getting wider, and the ties that bind it together are believed 
to be growing weaker. It is the general testimony, even of 
ministers, that there is less hospitality than formerly; but 
as a country settles up, and population becomes dense, 
such a change, in part at least, is inevitable. However, 
there ought alw^ays to be some place where all the people in a 
community could at times meet together on an equality, 
recognizing the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood 
of man. The Church of Christ was designed by its found- 
er to be just such an institution, and the adoption of the 
political principles of the Holy Scriptures will ever be found 
the most effective method of preventing society from drift- 
ing to the extremes of rich and poor, that destroyed the free- 
dom of Rome and will do the same for any other republic. 
The nation that will found its governmental institutions on 
the word of God and walk in its light will be able to discover 
the way to preserve the social liberty and welfare of its people 
under the changed circumstances of modern industrial prog- 
ress. Every age has its own difficulties to encounter ; and 
the great reason that they are not sooner removed is that the 
Church, instead of turning to the Holy Scriptures for the wis- 
dom to meet them, has often undertaken their solution with 
old doctrines that, while serviceable in the past under differ- 
ent circumstances, have now become inapplicable; forget- 
ting that the poet has well said, 



Redemption and Liberty. 109 

" New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good un- 
couth ; 

They must upward still, and onAvard, who would keep abreast 
of truth. 

Lo before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must pilgrims 
be; 

Launch our ' Mayflower ' and steer boldly through the desperate 
winter sea. 

Nor attempt the future's portals with the past's blood-rusted 
key." 

The land laws and system of taxation adopted by a na- 
tion are intimately connected with the social and industrial 
welfare of its people. The tendency of modern times is to 
consider real estate and personal effects as being all alike 
property, with which their owners are at liberty to do as 
they please. The kings of the middle ages thought that 
way about the lives of their subjects, and rarely ever con- 
sidered their oflSce and authority as a public trust. The 
Scriptures teach that land is property of a most peculiar 
sort, and upon which God and society have claims, as well 
. as its owners. With industry it is possible to indefinitely 
increase the banking, railroad, or manufacturing capital in 
a nation ; but the amount of its land is fixed, and every 
invention or improvement or increase in population adds to 
its value. A ship or a locomotive or merchandise repre- 
sents the labor of man in its formation ; but land is the 
workmanship of God, and he says, " the land is mine " and 
"shall not be sold in perpetuity." (Lev. xxv. 23, R. V.) 

The use of it is granted to men on condition that its 
real owner receive for rent the tithe of its produce, to be 
used in publishing, through preaching, teaching, or writing 
the knowledge of the only true God in the earth, and of 
redemption in Christ in healing the sick, in causing justice 
to be done in the courts ; and, in addition to the tithe 
this way expended, that provision be made for the needs 



110 National Salvation, 

of the poor, the widow, and the orphan. But instead 
of these humane and righteous principles governing, an 
atheistical political economy dominates the schools, and 
the courts are controlled by decisions that were made in a 
dark age, and by half-savage barons in Westminster Hall ; 
and, in consequence, land is now exempt from many of its 
just obligations to the general welfare, and even the cost of 
government is mostly laid on consumption, instead of ac- 
cording to the Scriptures, it should be on prodaction. Of 
all the millions necessary for the support of the Federal 
Government of the United States, not one dollar is raised 
as a land or income tax, although these two are * the 
most just and equitable ones that can be levied. The in- 
come of a millionaire is perhaps two hundred times great- 
er than that of an average citizen; but he does not con- 
sume more than five, or say ten, times as much; and under 
our present system, that places taxation on consumption, 
it may be said that, in proportion to wealth, the millionaire 
does not pay over one-twentieth as much taxes as the day 
laborer or small farmer; but if the scriptural principles 
of taxation on production were adopted, then every one 
would pay in proportion to his ability. If the total cost 
of government — municipal, county. State, and National — 
was levied in a single land tax, it would probably reduce them 
on perhaps sixty per cent, of the farmers — those who own 
the small tracts; about twenty-five per cent, would remain 
stationary, and the other fifteen per cent., which would in- 
clude all the large land-holders and owners of valuable 
city real estate, would have their taxes largely increased. 
With so many of the burdens of society now removed from 
land, there is no telling the monopoly that it can become 
and the value that may be placed on real estate. Even in 
a new country like the United States, with the greater por- 



Redemption and Liberty, 111 

tion not a hundred years settled, the increase in the price 
of land has so far exceeded the increase in the rates of 
wages that a home is now beyond the reach of any ordina- 
ry clerk, laborer, or factory operative in St. Louis, Chicago, 
Cincinnati, or any other large city. Visit any of them, 
and you can easily find from ten to twenty families hud- 
dled together in one tenement house, where it is impos- 
sible for them to observe the decencies and retirement 
that good morals require. Is it any wonder that,, under 
such circumstances, communism should rapidly increase? 
Will the clergy be blameless if they neglect to protest against 
such wrongs and show " a more excellent way?'' But will 
not the renters and wage-earners themselves (who ought to 
be most interested) open their eyes to the glory of Christ in 
the just and humane land and social and governmental laws 
that he has given for the rule of nations? Their principles 
are capable of a far wider social and industrial application 
in the business of this present life than they have ever yet re- 
ceived. Will not every one, and particularly every toiler, 
now hear the voice of Him who has said, '' Come unto me, all 
ye that labor;" and, while it is called to-day, seek to enter 
into His spiritual kingdom, and there contend for the land 
and taxation law^s of the Holy Scriptures, and that in all 
their fullness-the personal, political, and industrial freedom 
taught by the word of God may be established everywhere, 
but particularly in the United States of America, that it 
may continue to be an example of liberty and a torch and 
beacon-light of civilization to all the nations of the earth? 

My country ! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty. 

Of thee I sing : 
Land where my fathers died ! 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride! 
From every mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 



RBflemption and PeaGB. 



" Thou wilt ordain peace for us." 

'' Great peace have they which love thy law." 

" He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth ; he 
breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder ; he burneth 
the chariot in the fire." 

"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor 
destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls 
Salvation and thy gates Praise." 

" I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and 
none shall make you afraid : and I will rid evil beasts out of the 
land, neither shall the sword go through your land." 

" Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be 
no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to or- 
der it, and to establish it with judgtnent and with justice from 
henceforth even forever." 

" Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among 
you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe 
to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for 
you; because it -is your life: and through this thing ye shall pro- 
long your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to pos- 
sess it." 

" Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ." 

WITH the advent of the Redeemer a multitude of the 
heavenly host said: '' Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good-will toward men." What quiet- 
ness, happiness, and prosperity does the thought suggest! 
To a nation it is the flood-tide of civilization that makes 
the desert blossom like the rose, and causes the wheels 
of commerce to turn and the industrial arts to flourish, 



Redemption and Peace. 113 

and carries untold blessings in its train ; and redeeming 
grace will some day usher in a reign of universal peace 
for all the nations of the earth. 

PROHIBITION. 

Sin is the great cause of war, of strife, and of violence. 
It is the dividing principle. Wrath, variance, hatred, en- 
vyings, revelings, and murder are works of the flesh; and 
these seeds of evil grow and bear fruit that poisons society 
and destroys the happiness of mankind. In one direction 
it absorbs yearly nine hundred millions of the wealth of the 
United States, and, along with France, Germany, and 
Great Britain, there are three billions of dollars annually 
expended by these four nations for intoxicating drinks ; and 
the money spent is but the smallest part of the loss incurred 
by the traffic. When the loss it occasions of pure manhood, 
of holy womanhood, and of health, and all the trouble and 
crime and murders it engenders are considered some faint 
idea of its evil may be formed. It is estimated that in the 
United States alone sixty thousand annually die drunkards, 
and that more wealth and human lives are destroyed from 
this cause than perished by the great deluge in Noah's time. 
Glory be to God that the kingdom of Christ is the impla- 
cable and unyielding foe of every thing that is an enemy to 
the welfare of the human race ! Every moral principle that 
redemption unfolds is of benefit ; and the more of them any 
people will gather up, and upon them found their laws and 
polity, the better will it be for that nation. To prohibit 
and suppress this evil is eminently in accordance with the 
laws of God. One way of doing it is for ministers of the 
gospel to explain the benefits of sobriety, and persuade all 
to become total abstainers, and to keep away from the sa- 
loon. Another way is for magistrates, by authority of law, 
to remove the temptation by suppressing the saloon. These 
8 



114 National Salvation. 

methods are different, although they proceed on parallel 
lines, and each one is helpful to the other; and redemption 
contemplates the exercise of both in preventing evil. 

Amid all the destruction caused by the liquor traffic it is 
cheering to note the success that has attended efforts for its 
removal. Some forty years ago Maine passed a prohibitory 
law, and now has but one hundred and fifty-one State pris- 
oners, or a ratio of one person in the penitentiary for each 
four thousand three hundred and thirty-three inhabitants. 
But Rhode Island, with the license system, has three times 
as many in prison, its ratio being one to every one thousand 
two hundred and ninety-three of the population. The num- 
ber of inhabitants to each one in the penitentiary in Massa- 
chusetts is one thousand two hundred and ninety-four ; Ten- 
nessee, one thousand three hundred and seven; Georgia, 
one thousand and ninety; Alabama, nine hundred and for- 
ty-six; Mississippi, nine hundred and forty-three; New 
York, nine hundred and fifty-six ; Arkansas, one thousand 
six hundred and fifty ; and Texas, six hundred and seventy. 
Illinois, with the license system, has one convict for every 
one thousand six hundred and fifty inhabitants; but just 
over in Iowa, with prohibition, there is only one person in 
the penitentiary for every two thousand nine hundred and 
sixty * of its population ; and Maine and Iowa are both in 
the hands of officials who have usually not given a very 
strict enforcement to temperance legislation. But with pro- 
hibitory laws in the hands of officers who will vigorously 
enforce them, it is believed that any community may reach 
that plane where they will not have more than one person 
in the penitentiary for each five thousand of the population. 

^See report of United States Labor Bureau on convict labor, 
upon which these statistics are based, although in a few in- 
stances they have been corrected after correspondence with State 
officers. 



Redemption and Peace. 115 

Texas has more than six times as many of her citizens in 
the penitentiary as Maine has in proportion to population, 
and life and property is not any safer there, by reason of 
all this punishment, that it is in the Pine-tree State. It has 
recently voted down a constitutional prohibitory amend- 
ment, although there can be no doubt about the scriptural- 
ness of such a law. A large part of the Bible and six of the 
ten commandments are prohibitory, and it is beyond ques- 
tion the will of God that temptations and stumbling-blocks 
should be removed. In the contest over prohibition in 
Texas Roger Q. Mills led the forces of evil, and became so 
distinguished that he has since been made chairman of the 
important Committee of Ways and Means, and given the 
leadership of his party in the lower branch of Congress. 
Jefferson Davis also lent his influence to defeat the amend- 
ment, and nearly all the political leaders of the State assist- 
ed, with an honorable exception in the case of Senator 
Reagan. " Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened 
her mouth without measure '' to receive the inhabitants of 
Texas, who are gone into captivity because there is no 
knowledge among her honorable men, and in her laws and 
constitution she has rejected the wisdom of God. (Isa. v. 
13, 14.) But of course these gentlemen are entitled to, and 
should be given, all the glory that comes from statesman- 
ship that unnecessarily consigns so many human beings to 
a life of wretchedness here and ruin beyond description 
hereafter. Every one should know that when this matter 
is fairly set before them, and they Avill still by their votes 
sanction such an administration of government, they are 
to that extent responsible for the evil. 

Commissioner C. D. Wright reports 44,492 persons con- 
fined under severe penalties in penitentiaries (1886) in dif- 
ferent portions of the United States. But if there were no 
more elsewhere than there are in Maine, the number would 



116 National Salvation. 

be only 12,9-19, or say in round numbers 13,000. This 
means that with prohibitory laws at least thirty thousand 
persons w^ho are now in confinement would be at liberty. 
What an army these figures suggest! and what an increase 
of peace and happiness does the thought present! What 
hopes have been blasted! and what a fountain of grief has 
been opened to fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, 
sons, and daughters, by the ruin of these thirty thousand, 
which is all preventable by the enforcement of prohibitory 
laws! If we follow the statesmanship of Davis and Mills, 
it will lead us into a realm where pitfalls and temptations 
are multiplied, and where jails and penitentiaries abound, 
and where the air is laden with the sighing and groaning 
of the prisoners and the woes and sorrows of their friends 
over their misfortunes. But if we follow the counsels of 
the Holy Ghost, the ministers and magistrates will not bear 
their swords in vain against this evil-doer, the liquor traffic, 
liberty shall be given the captives and the '^ opening of the 
prison to them that are bound,'' and the ^' oil of joy for 
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; " 
and instead of shame and confusion in the land of pro- 
hibition, they shall " possess the doitble,^^ and '' rejoice in 
their portion," and " everlasting joy shall be unto them.'' 
All this is possible anywhere and to any people, through the 
redemption in Christ. 

CAPITAL AND LABOR. 

The Israelites never had a servile war, and for the best 
of all reasons that the materials for it never there existed. 
It is only in later times — w^hen the spirit of the Mosaic in- 
stitutions had passed away, and the usurer and monopolist 
had done their work, and the Jewish nation was nearing 
its fall — that here and there, in the books of Isaiah and 
Nehemiah, we get glimpses of an oppressed class, and no- 
bles that ground the faces of the poor. But the State, as 



JRedemption and Peace, 117 

designed by Moses, did not oppress any class, nor favor one 
more than another ; so while it lasted there was never any 
occasion for a servile insurrection. This explains why Jii- 
dea never was distracted wdth the fierce and sanguinary 
conflicts of patrician and proletarian that at times brought 
Rome almost to the verge of destruction. The same cause 
has marred the peace of other nations, and has overturned 
or shaken every throne in modern Europe; for the rise of 
the Nationalists in France and the Chartists in England 
were both caused by the misrule and oppression of their 
respective Governments. Surely the internal order and po- 
litical economy of a State that for centuries w^as exempt 
from such troubles is worthy of a profound study. Par- 
ticularly is this the case here in the United States, where 
the relations between capital and labor may at any mo- 
ment become a source of disquiet. In fact, to some extent 
it is that already, for the strike and lockout are really, on a 
small scale, an insurrection against the established order of 
things. Of course in the beginning it means by a combi- 
nation to accomplish its purpose without violating the 
criminal law. But all strikes verge so closely on the line 
that the transition to a state of anarchy and violence is 
easy. If any community wants to be spared the turbu- 
lence, anxiety, and w^aste occasioned by strikes, they have 
only to open the doors of the school and the Church and 
procure the services of the teacher and the minister, and 
adjust the relations between capitol and labor — not to suit 
the poor or the rich, but in accordance with the principles 
of redemption. It costs far less in this way to preserve or- 
der than to call in a small army of Pinkerton's detectives. 
The people who will choose this more excellent way wall 
prove the truth of the saying that " the work of righteous- 
ness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quiet- 
ness and assurance forever.^' 



118 National Salvation. 

VIOLENCE AND DESTRUCTION. 

Until recently in Arkansas many of the colonels went 
about like walking arsenals, with a small battery in each 
hip pocket, and of course every young ruffian in the State 
must follow their example, and carry one or two revolv- 
ers. In 1881 the Legislature, in the face of an adverse 
public sentiment, passed an act prohibiting the carrying of 
concealed weapons, and to-day it is one of the most popular 
laws on the statute-book. It has not only to a great extent 
disarmed ruffianism, but in numberless instances prevented 
homicide ; for, as the poet well says, 

The opportunity to do ill deeds 
Oft makes ill deeds done. 

It was really a triumph and victory for peace, and shows 
one benefit of enshrining the principles of redemption in 
the laws of the land. 

If the benefits of redemption are so great in promoting 
the internal peace of nations, it will appear still greater 
when its power to disband vast armies and navies is consid- 
ered. Here it may not be amiss to remark that the consti- 
tution of the Hebrew commonwealth made no provision 
for a standing army. But it was one of the evils of which 
Samuel warned the Israelites, when they desired a king, 
that monarchy would inevitably multiply offices and lead 
to a standing army. Still Europe, to this day, although 
nominally Christian, is little better than a vast camp, and 
the enormous naval and military expenses of the difierent 
countries is one great cause of their impoverishment. Rus- 
sia, at the lowest, has continually 750,000 men under arms, 
and Austria 300,000, while there is a total of never less 
than 3,500,000 European soldiers in active service in times 
of profound peace; and every man of them, by the taxa- 
tion of honest labor, must be fed, clothed, and pensioned 



Redemption and Peace, 119 

when he is disabled from further service. To say nothing 
of the havoc and destruction they may cause, just imagine 
how much the withdrawal of so many men in the prime of 
life must unhinge the social fabric and natural order of so- 
ciety, and you may have some conception of the evil of this 
" blood tax." If you were to ask any of these Governments 
why they keep so many of their citizens from being produc- 
ers and make them only wasters and consumers, the answer 
of each would be: " To keep the peace from being broken." 
If France keeps an army of half a million men, Germany 
must do the same to prevent spoliation. Political econo- 
mists are doing something for peace by showing that there 
is no profit in war, either to the victor or the vanquished ; 
but the only remedy that will ever be found effectual must 
come through the efficacy of redeeming grace and a class of 
ministers of the gospel who will not shun to declare the 
'* whole counsel of God." 

International law does not exist outside of the pales of 
redemption ; and even where it is accepted its principles 
are not well defined, so that it cannot yet be relied upon 
to govern the intercourse of nations. At present it pro- 
vides for no courts; and, in defiance of the legal maxim 
that "no man can be the judge in his own cause," it al- 
lows each nation to interpret the law for itself But its 
day is coming. Steam, electricity, cheap postage, the print- 
ing-press, universal commerce, and, above all, the hallowing 
and uniting influence of redemption, are beginning to 
weld the nations into one common brotherhood. Even 
now, considering the interests involved and the immense 
service international law can render, it is beginning to 
commend itself to publicists, thinkers, statesmen, and phi- 
lanthropists with an impressiveness before unknown. When 
Israel left Egypt it was the design of Providence that 
they should enter Canaan by the end of the second sum- 



120 National Salvation. 

mer. Instead of this, through unbelief, it took them for- 
ty years. We look back with astonishment, oblivious to 
the fact that it is now taking modern nations centuries to 
make the same journey. From the breaking up of the 
Roman Empire until the sixteenth century, and in some 
instances later, every petty lord in Europe was a law unto 
himself. He gathered up his retainers and swooped down 
on a neighboring town or castle, and unless they could 
repel him it was thought proper for the invader to capt- 
ure and destroy every thing he found. At the same time 
piracy on the high seas was common. We to day look back 
and wonder how they ever endured such a state of society ; 
and we now say that before any one can proceed against 
another he must obtain the sanction of an impartial and 
disinterested court. May not a time come Avhen before 
one nation can proceed against another it must obtain an 
approval of the justness of its cause, and the sanction of a 
disinterested international court before it can levy war? 
Assuredly that day is drawing nigh. The welfare of hu- 
manity all lies in this direction, and redeeming grace is ad- 
equate to the work. The writer was once suggesting this 
thought and the appropriateness of the word of the Lord as 
the rule of international law, when a skeptic said : " What 
would you do with the Canadian fisheries question if you 
had only the Bible to settle it by?^' The answer was: 
" Nothing is more simple. Try it and decide it by the 
golden rule." When that day does come the book which 
will be most studied and have most authority not only 
in theology, but as the chief depository of the principles 
of the civil, criminal, and international law, will be the 
Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. Then the 
fortifications will be dismantled and the vast armies that 
have absorbed the life-blood of multitudes of people will 
be disbanded; and then will be fulfilled the prophecy: "JPor 



Redemption and Pea6e. 12l 

the laiv shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from 
Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and 
rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their 
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : 
nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more." 

The drums shall beat no longer, 

And the battle-flags be furled 
In the parliament of man, 

The federation of the world. ^ • 



=== A bill has passed the United States Congress, and was approved May 24, 
-1888, calling a Conference of representatives of the American nations to meet 
in Washington in October, 1889, to consider, among other things, the adop- 
tion of a uniform system of weights and measures, patent rights, copyrights, 
a common silver coin, and " a definite plan of arbitration of all questions, 
disputes, and differences, that may now or hereafter exist between them, to 
the end that all difficulties and disputes between such nations may be peace- 
ably settled and wars prevented." While this book is passing through the 
press the representatives of eighteen republics are in session at Washing- 
ton. Its labors are not far enough advanced to be noticed here, and much 
may not be accomplished by this first meeting; but it is certainly a move in 
the right direction. 



Ttie Wan from Egpt to Canaan. 



"Teach all nations." — Chrisfs Commission to his Apostles. 

"All nations shall serve him." — Psalms Ixxii. 11. 

" Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." — Psalms xxxiii. 
12. 

" The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall per- 
ish." — Isaiah Ix. 12. 

" Righteousness exalteth a nation : but sin is a reproach to 
any people." — Proverbs xiv. 34. 

"The idea of being a bad man and a good citizen is an ab- 
surdity."—!^. T.Mills. 

" The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the in- 
dividuals composing it." — /. S. Mill. 

"A commonwealth ought to be but as one huge Christian per- 
sonage, one mighty growth and stature of an honest man as big 
and compact in virtue as in body ; for look what the grounds 
and causes are of single happiness to one man ; the same ye 
shall find them to a whole State, as Aristotle both in his ethics 
and politics from the principle of reason lays down." — Milton. 

" That which raises a country, that which strengthens a coun- 
try, and that which dignifies a country ; that which spreads her 
power, creates her moral influence, and makes her respected and 
submitted to, bends the heart of millions, and bows down the 
pride of nations to her — the instrument of obedience, the fount- 
ain of supremacy, the true throne and crown and scepter of a 
nation — is not an aristocracy of blood, not an aristocracy of fash- 
ion, not an aristocracy of talent, only it is an aristocracy of char- 
acter." — London Times. 

WE have now considered some of the main elements of 
national salvation, and doubtless it has prepared us 
to more minutely consider the steps by which it is reached. 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan, 123 

There are four essential points, and any nation that will 
neglect either of them must inevitably suffer loss. The first, 
and most important of all, is the character of the popula- 
tion that make up the nation. Above race, or training, or 
education, or social influences, the religion of a people is 
the mightiest element in determining whether their charac- 
ter shall be good or bad. Religion teaches, or ought to 
teach, principles, and principles form character, and char- 
acter makes destiny ; but it is only true and exalted princi- 
ples that can form true and exalted characters. No mat- 
ter, however, what kind of religion a people accept, it in- 
variably, for the great majority, governs their concep- 
tions of right and wrong. Theology, like a czar of many 
lands, wields a scepter over the governing faculty of man. 
What the sun is in the heavens so is it among the sci- 
ences. The others are subordinate, and can' only reflect 
and shine by its light as the moon does by that of the sun. 
Only as a people perfect the science of theology can they 
advance and make progress in the right direction ; for re- 
ligion is the medium like a window through which people 
get their supreme light. If the glass is green or blue, the 
light as it passes down w411 take on that hue, and so wdll 
every thing on w^hich it shines. So does the religion of a 
people give tinge and color to their arts, sciences, politics, 
education, commerce, and enterprise. If that is misleading, 
vain, false, or cruel, their history will be like it; or if, as 
is very often the case, it is a mixture of truth and error, a 
compound of the worship of God and of Baal or of Mammon, 
their history will correspond and be like it inconsistent ; or 
if it asserts and teaches only a part of the truth, and the re- 
mainder is not even denied, but its existence silently ig- 
nored, the moral character of that people will be but im- 
perfectly developed. It is the glory of redemption that it 
guides into all truth and in its fullness teaches only pure 



124 National Salvation, 

and exalted principles and offers to gird every one who 
will in righteousness call upon the name of the Lord with 
the might and the strength necessary to adopt and obey 
them in their lives. 

The first cardinal principle that it unfolds is that, as a re- 
sult of Adam's transgression, all humanity inherits a nature 
tainted with sin, and fallen from the original nobleness in 
which '' God created man in his own image." This taint is 
the seed of every vice in the heart and the source of every 
evil that rots society and the cause of every blight and 
curse that visit the earth. It so clouds the intellect and 
estranges the affection, even from things that are true, 
pure, just, and good, that the carnal mind becomes at en- 
mity with God, although these graces are possessed in per- 
fection by the Godhead. Sin not only estranges man from 
Avhat is good, but it also lowers and degrades him, so that, 
now fallen from the image of God, he becomes earthly, sen- 
sual, and devilish. The man who would undertake to build 
a durable and permanent house on a sandy foundation would 
not make a greater mistake than he who undertakes to build 
an enduring character for uprightness without first laying 
deep its foundation in a personal cleansing and deliverance, 
not only from gross moral defilements, but also from the 
very bent and inclination to wrong-doing. Only in this 
way can the power of sin be broken, and only characters 
that have this good foundation will endure the trials and 
storms of passion and temptation that life is sure to bring. 
Redeeming grace, with its light, is not only ready to guide 
us in this matter, but also offers to help make us ade- 
quate for the work, and, by changing the moral nature of 
those who accept Christ, leads them to deny self and en- 
throne truth on the conscience, and to hunger and thirst 
after righteousness and to love God with the whole heart, 
soul, mind, and strength. It can do this not only for the 



The Way from Egyj)t to Canaan, 125 

rich, but also for the poor ; not only for the learned, but also 
for the ignorant; and not only for the Jew, but also for the 
Gentile — in fact, the last often become first ; and the vil- 
est, like the publican and the thief on the cross, are by its 
marvelous power at once made meet for an inheritance with 
the saints in light and glory everlasting. If sin is in all 
nations, everywhere corrupting and degrading humanity, 
thanks be unto God that redemption is able to purify and 
raise and elevate all of all nations and give them pure and 
exalted principles of action ; and if they have acquired an 
earthly character, they can now successfully build a heav- 
enly one and be again transformed into the image of God. 
So then there is hope for all mankind in the gospel of Christ. 
Sin is the great scandal on the work of Creation, and if 
any one will be delivered from its corruption, and escape 
the wrath of God and the evils which will surely overtake 
the transgressor, and have peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, 
and form a character that, if not now, will eventually be 
esteemed among men, and what is far more, approved and 
accepted of heaven and exalted and glorified in eternity, 
they have, only to renounce sin, and, with the whole heart 
in righteousness, steadfastly believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and make his death and sufferings on the Cross the 
ground of their redemption, and they shall now^ be saved 
from sin. Will not every one who reads these lines, if they 
have not already, now, while it is called to-day, seek to be- 
come an heir of glory? 

There is a fountain filled with blood. 

Drawn from Inimanuers veins ; 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood 

Lose all their guilty stains. 

The dying thief rejoiced to see 

That fountain in his day ; 
And there may I, though vile as he, 

Wash all my sins away. 



126 National Salvation, 

Those who are accepted in Christ and abide faithful shall 
not only be saved themselves, but God will work through 
thera, and they shall be instruments in his hands for the 
salvation of others. Hannibal, when a child, was dedicated 
on the altar of patriotism to the defense of Carthage and 
the destruction of Rome; but redemption summons its fol- 
lowers to higher and more exalted conflicts. It calls them 
to labor for the restoration of a lost and ruined race, " by 
sin eternally undone," to be the foe of all wrong and the 
antagonist of poverty, intemperance, wretchedness, thrift- 
lessness, and degradation, and of every thing that retards or 
interferes with the welfare, elevation, and glorification of 
humanity; and to be the destroyers of the devil and all of 
his works; and to abolish death, and bring life and immor- 
tality to light for all mankind. It assures them in doing 
this work that God, who clothes the lilies of the field and 
feeds the fowls of the air, will watch over them and supply 
their wants, and that the triumph of their labors in the end is 
certain. It bids them look at humanity, reeking and fester- 
ing all over with the sores of sin upon the mind, the heart, 
and the conscience, and at the example of the leprous man, 
who was instantly healed by the touch of the Lord Jesus. So 
to-day is the power of his gospel. Wherever faithful souls 
engage in the work of redemption such plenty appears that 
the hungry are fed and the naked are clothed, the school and 
the college rise up to remove ignorance, and flood the mind 
with light and knowledge ; the physician makes his round 
and the sick are healed ; the hospital, the blind and insane 
asylums are erected ; and liberty, with all its means, is " pro- 
claimed throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants 
thereof," and a bill of rights, securing it to them, is made a 
part of the supreme law of government. The Lord Jesus 
Christ is the door for every one of these things, and they are 
only found to-day in the earth where his gospel is preached. 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan, 127 

They are the signs he promised his disciples that would fol- 
low evangelistic efforts for the spread of his cause. O that 
every one would consider them, and have sympathy for hu- 
manity, groaning under the weight of poverty, ignorance, 
disease, oppression, and all the burdens sin brings down 
upon it, and for the sake of the salt they might be to the 
earth, and the lights they might be to the world, and the 
deliverers they might be to the human race, that they would 
abide faithful in Christ, and become fruit-bearing branches 
of the living vine! Will not everyone who reads these 
lines, and is accepted in Christ, now take unto themselves 
** the whole armor of God,'' and in the grace of the Lord 
Jesus fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal 

life? 

Stand up! stand up for Jesus! 

Ye soldiers of the cross ; 
Lift high his royal banner, 

It must not suffer loss : 
From vict'ry unto vict'ry 

His army he shall lead, 
Till every foe is vanquished. 

And Christ is Lord indeed. 

The theme of this work is national salvation, but the 
repentance., justification, adoption, and sanctification of in- 
dividuals is indispensable for its realization. Before leav- 
ing this part of the subject, let it be w^ell understood that 
even w^hen one has entered into Christ, and knows of his ac- 
ceptance by the witness of the Spirit, and is outwardly 
abundant in labors for his cause, he still ought not to rest 
there, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. 
Let your eye be single that your body may be full of light; 
see that nothing is done, either by omission or commission, 
that will interfere with this shining progress. Some become 
connected with a number of secret societies out of which 
they make to §ome extent religions, although the Lord is a 



128 National Salvation, 

jealous God, and believers are complete in Christ, and it is 
as much a command as ever, " Thou shalt have no other 
• gods [religions but the one I have instituted] before me ; '^ 
while others allow habits to be formed, and indulge artifi- 
cial appetites like that for tobacco or opium or alcohol that 
grieve and quench the spirit. No fact is better attested 
either by human experience or the declarations of God's 
word than that to those who will cultivate and improve the 
grace given more shall be added; and those who will not, 
but become careless, their light will become darkness, and 
it will be taken away from them — even that which they 
had. Therefore make it the one supreme business of thine 
to cleave to the Lord with all thine heart, soul, mind, and 
strength, and be willing to suffer the loss of houses and 
lands, or fame and pleasure, and even life itself, and if nec- 
essary become a martyr sooner than deny Christ or his 
truth in the earth. Remember that he that' will save his 
life will lose it, and he that will lose his life for the sake of 
Christ or his cause shall find it. Let self be denied, and 
do not remain a babe in Christ, but go on to perfection. 
Press to the mark for the prize of a pure heart and holy 
life. There is an anointing from on high for those who will 
be laborers in redemption's harvest that qualifies them for the 
work. The Holy Ghost removes from them the spirit of fear, 
and gives them the spirit of love, and of courage, and a sound 
mind with a gift of teaching, exhorting, governing, giving, 
praying, or of song ; and the destruction of " the body of sin," 
with the sanctifi cation of all things through consecration, 
and faith in Christ, and in the cleansing power of his blood, 
is the gate-way unto these things. The measure of grace 
and gifts possessed by its Church in any nation determines 
the extent of its power to remove poverty, ignorance, dis- 
ease, and oppression from that nation, and bring in pros- 
perity, intelligence, health, and freedom, with all the bless- 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan. 129 

ings of national salvation. Would we be workers together 
with God in causing this glory to descend to earth ? Then 
let us here and now be holy and perfect with the Lord. 

What is our calling's glorious hope 

But inward holiness ? 
For this to Jesus I look up ; * 

I calmly wait for this. 
I wait till he shall touch me clean, 

Shall life and power impart, 
Give me the faith that casts out sin. 

And purifies the heart. 

The second point to be observed in order to insure na- 
tional salvation is that the State, in its constitution and 
government, should acknowledge the existence and au- 
thority of the only true God and of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The closer a nation draws nigh unto the only 
true God, the more exactly will it align itself on the side 
of right and become in harmony with every" moral prin- 
ciple in the universe, and the more directly will it antag- 
onize evil of every form to the very great benefit of the 
peoj)le over whom it rules. But this can only be done 
through Christ. It is as true of a nation as of an indi- 
vidual that it cannot have access to the Father but by 
the Son ; only* through him has any nation in all the 
past ever been able . to draw nigh unto God. When 
through Christ the authority of God is acknowledged and 
his name hallowed by the State, it then becomes a mor- 
al institution, clothed and endowed with wisdom and 
power to become a factor in the destruction of sin and 
in the elevation of the people over whom it rules. The 
State that recognizes Christ is turned to the true source 
of light, and becomes enabled to perceive and adopt right 
principles of government; and these things are as im- 
portant to the welfare of a nation as of an individual ; for 
9 



130 National Salvation. 

to found the laws and constitution of the State upon true 
principles and rigidly adhere to them in the administra- 
tion of government is the way of salvation for a nation like 
it is for an individual ; and to build on error and lay the 
foundations of government on any thing else but right- 
eousness, is <to enter the broad way that leads to nation- 
al destruction. The nation that will walk in the light of 
false principles is as certain to fall as did Adam. The 
value to a people of the principles of virtue, industry, 
temperance, fortitude, courage, intelligence, liberty, jus- 
tice, wise sanitary regulations, the preservation of the 
Sabbath, and the maintenance of families formed by the 
union of one man and one woman are so great that they 
cannot be overestimated. Every one of them are rays 
of the glory of God that through the atonement in 
Christ is coming down to bless the world of mankind. 
But these principles lose their vigor and become like 
withered branches in a nation where God is not honored. 
That is their condition to-day in any heathen land, and 
it has ever been so in all ages. And when the State re- 
fuses to give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name 
it is that much to separate the nation from his favor, and 
to lessen the vigor and strength of these virtues that are 
so essential to its welfare. But the State that through 
Christ draws nigh unto God will find every one of them 
in the fullness of their power rising up, tier upon tier, 
like bulwarks of granite walls round about the nation, to 
defend its inhabitants from poverty, disease, ignorance, 
injustice, or oppression. 

By the State is here meant the institution of civil gov- 
ernment, whether exercised in directing the foreign poli- 
cy of a nation, in administering the affairs of a province, 
or in ruling in the smaller domain of a municipality. 
Many can only conceive of the State as something that 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan. 131 

in its essence is force, and exists by its exercise. A pas- 
sage from Guizot's " History of Civilization " may assist 
such to form a better conception : 

Society exits. Something is to he done, no matter what, in 
its name and for its interest ; a law has to be executed, some 
measure to be adopted, a judgment to be pronounced. Now cer- 
tainly there is a proper method of supplying these social wants 5 
there is a proper law to make a proper measure to adopt a proper 
judgment to pronounce whatever may be the matter in hand. 
Whatever may be the interest in question, there is upon every 
occasion a truth which must be discovered and which ought to 
decide the matter and govern the conduct to be adopted. The 
first business of government is to seek this truth, is to discover 
what is just, reasonable, and suitable to society. When this is 
found it is proclaimed. The next business is to introduce it to 
the public mind, to get it approved by the men upon whom it is 
to act, to persuade them that it is reasonable. In all this is there 
any thing coercive? Not at all. Suppose, now, that the truth, 
which ought to decide upon the affair, no matter what — suppose, 
I say, that the truth, being found and proclaimed, all understand- 
ings should be at once convinced, and all wills at once deter- 
mined ; that all should acknowledge that the government w^as 
right, and obey it spontaneously. There is nothing yet of com- 
pulsion, no occasion for the employment of force. Does it follow, 
then, that a government does not exist? Is there nothing of gov- 
ernment in all this? To be sure there is, and it has accomplished 
its task. Compulsion appears not till the resistance of individu- 
als calls for it — till the idea, the decision which authority has 
adopted fails to obtain the approbation or the voluntary submis- 
sion of all. Then government employs force to make itself 
obeyed. This is a necessary consequence of human imperfec- 
tion — an imperfection which resides as w^ell in power as in socie- 
ty. There is no way of entirely avoiding this ; civil government 
will always be obliged to have recourse to a certain degree of 
compulsion. Still it is evident that they are not made up of 
compulsion, because whenever they can they are glad to do 
without it, to the great blessing of all ; and their highest point 
of perfection is to be able to discard it and to trust to means 
purely moral to their influence on the understanding, so that in 



132 National Salvation. 

proportion as governments can dispense with compulsion and 
force the more faithM it is to its true nature and the better it 
fulfills the purpose for which it is sent. This is not to shrink ; 
this is not to give way, as people commonly cry out ; it is merely 
acting in a different manner, in a manner much more general 
and powerful. Those governments which employ the most com- 
pulsion perform much less than those which scarcely ever have 
recourse to it. Government, by addressing itself to the under- 
standing, by engaging the free will of its subjects, by acting by 
means purely intellectual, instead of contracting, expands and 
elevates itself It is then that it accomplishes most and attains 
to the grandest objects. On the contrary it is when government 
is obliged to be constantly emplojdng its physical arm that it be- 
comes weak and restrained, that it does little, and does that lit- 
tle badly. 

This ideal is well presented by Gruizot, but when 
through all the ages the actual history of government is 
reviewed, like that of a fallen angel, it presents a fright- 
ful picture. Consider all the pride that governments 
have engendered, and all the oppression that they have 
fostered and sustained, and all the cruel and unnecessa- 
ry wars that thej^ have ordered, and all the decrees of 
slaughter that they have sent out, like that of Pharaoh 
for the murder of the Hebrew children, and like that of 
Haman for the destruction of the whole Jewish nation, 
and Herod's for the killing of the children in Bethlehem, 
and the sanguinary proscriptions of Eome during the re- 
public and under the empire when the legions in wanton- 
ness often destroyed all the inhabitants of a city or prov_ 
ince, and in modern times Bartholomew, Grlencoe, and 
Mameluke massacres, Jeffrey's bloody assizes, and these 
and a thousand other fully as atrocious crimes that were 
all done not in lawlessness, but by authority of the State 
— is it any wonder that St. John the evangelist, having 
had a painful experience of its 2:)ower, and as a prophet 
discerning its corruption, should have compared the 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan. 133 

State to a ferocious and blood-thirsty beast ''like unto a 
leopard?" 

Things that are evil in themselves, like piracy and 
counterfeiting, are to be sujDpressed and destroyed ; 
while others that are good and useful, although fallen, 
are through Christ to be purified, restored, and pre- 
served. Government, being an ordinance of divine insti- 
tution, belongs to the latter class. And it is " the good 
pleasure of the Father that in Christ should all fullness 
dwell ; and through him to reconcile all things [that are 
reconcilable] unto himself, having made peace through 
the blood of his cross ; through him, I say, whether 
things upon the earth, or things in the heavens." The 
State is one of these " things upon the earth " that nee.ds 
reconciliation through Christ with God the Father in or- 
der that it may be cleansed and best fitted for its work. 
But for that matter the principle is universal and may be 
affirmed of all arts, sciences, corporations, societies, and 
institutions that only as they recognize Christ can they 
do their best work for humanity, and be kept from deteri- 
orating and becoming corrupt on account of sin. But 
this recognition need not at all connect the State with 
any Church or ecclesiasticism. It is merely the State 
through Christ acknowledging the only true God in or- 
der that its own power for evil may be destroj^ed, and 
that it may be purified and illuminated in all its branches, 
executive, judicial, and legislative, with the wisdom to 
rule in righteousness. Its office, while important, is 
more earthly than that of a religious organization'; but 
the more fully both Church and State recognize Christ 
the better will it be for the people who live under their 
influence. It appertains to the State to coin money, reg- 
ulate commerce, make internal improvements, open and 
keep in repair the highways and water-ways of travel, 



134 National Salvation. 

administer justice, maintain order, look after the general 
welfare, institute sanitary regulations for the preserva- 
tion of health, and provide and take control of such land 
and naval forces as may be needed to defend the nation. 
To do this at the least expense, and for the most good to 
the greatest number, and without wronging or doing in- 
justice to any one, the quality above all others which the 
State most needs is wisdom. Shall it get this from one 
man, as in imperialism ; or from one man assisted by a 
representative assembly, as in a constitutional monarchy ; 
or from a class, as in that odious form of government 
known as an oligarchy; or from the votes of all the male 
inhabitants, as in a democracy as it at present exists in 
the United States ? A little reflection will satisfy any 
one open to conviction that either of these methods are 
fallible, and may at times be productive of great harm. 
But is there any way that a nation may be led and 
guided by unerring wisdom ? There is in Christ Jesus. 
Let a nation draw nigh unto God through him, and the 
Lord will become their lawgiver. He that gave Solo- 
mon wisdom will anoint its rulers with the same spirit, 
and under its influence statesmen will plan wisely and 
judges will decree justice. And He that by wisdom 
founded the earth "upon nothing and by understanding 
hath established the heavens will become their counselor, 
unerring guide, and Saviour. 

Thirdly, let the laws and policy of the State be in har- 
mony with the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. This 
will require that profanity, gambling. Sabbath desecra- 
tion, or any public immorality, be suppressed. While 
under the New Testament the word of Grod does not ofl*er 
a rigid system of rules to regulate the conduct of nations, 
it does clearly teach principles, and everywhere empha- 
sizes the importance of their being observed in the ad- 



The Way from Mgypt to Canaan. 135 

ministration of government. It is often asserted in an 
oracular way that '*you cannot make men good by law," 
and this is supposed to be an unanswerable argument 
against any effort being made for the enactment or en- 
forcement of statutes dealing with morals. But the as- 
sertion is only partly true. In a very considerable sense 
you can make men better by the enactment and enforce- 
ment of wise and wholesome laws, although it is conceded 
that magistrates have not access to the heart and con- 
science of the people like ministers. They have not the 
same opportunity of convincing the understanding and 
inclining the will to what is right. But good laws faith- 
fully executed re-enforce moral teachings and become a 
terror to evil-doers, and by a just penalty for their viola- 
tion they deter from a repetition of the offense. And the 
laws of a nation, to liave their best effect, ought always 
to be in harmony with sound morals. Hence we lay 
down the principle that national salvation requires the 
sanctification of the powers and duties of officers of the 
State as well as of ministers of religion. If heretical doc- 
trines in the Church have always been a sore plague to 
humanity, so likewise are atheistical laws and constitu- 
tions in the State. The latter always more or less fail 
to defend the people against moral evils, which are the 
most grievous and severe of all others. If humanity 
would attain to the greatest degree of happiness possible, 
it must be ruled and defended by the sword of the Spirit 
or the sword of the magistrate, with both exercised in ac- 
cordance with the word of God. Only in this way will so- 
ciety have a perfect shield that will be a defense against 
every danger. 

Even Plato had a conception of this, for in one of his 
dialogues he states that he would have each law to begin 
with a preamble which would be a forcible exhortation 



136 National Salvation. 

to dissuade from the crime for which it declared the pen- 
alty. And this Grecian ideal finds its highest and truest 
expression in the gospel plan of salvation. Wherever it 
obtains it erects the pulpit to exhort and to warn all of 
the evil and danger of sin, and to point out to every one 
the path of life. And for the incorrigible who will not 
yield to the Spirit's guidance, but will still set them- 
selves to work iniquity, that the evil spread no farther 
it ordains the magistrate to enforce just penalties for im- 
moral conduct. This is the model government, but it can 
only exist where the doctrines of the Church and the 
laws and constitution of the State are in harmony with 
the will of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Such 
a government would fully realize Gladstone's view of per- 
fection in ruling : '' Where the law made it as easy as 
possible to do right, and as difficult as possible to do 
wrong." And where can it be easier to do right than 
where temptations are removed, and where peace and 
order prevail, and where the Spirit and the bride (the 
Church through the ministry of reconciliation) are of- 
fering the means of grace, and saying to every one : 
"Come, and partake of the bread of life and of the 
water of life, and be strong in the Lord and in the 
power of his might, and put on the whole armor of 
God?" And where can it be harder to do wrong than 
where there is general prosperity and intelligence among 
all classes, and laws so just and equitable that they com- 
mend themselves to every one's conscience in the sight 
of God, and where back of those laws are faithful officers 
and magistrates seeing to their enforcement, so that 
crime rarely ever goes unpunished, but is usually nipped 
in the bud, and where there is no class among the popu- 
lation with a contempt for law, and who by the malad- 
ministration of justice have been educated and confirmed 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan. 137 

into such habitual criminals as to become a constant 
charge on the public? And all this is possible to any 
nation through the redemption in Christ. 

It was Cain, the murderer, that rejected the obligation 
of being his brother's keeper, but the gosj^el, by the par- 
able of the good Samaritan and the commandment to 
''love thy neighbor as thyself," requires it from all who 
hope for salvation. And there are but few things in which 
one can better fulfill that command or render his neigh- 
bor a greater service than to assist him in having a good 
government with all the benefits it brings. A good one 
will remove temptations out of his way and build a wall 
across every path to evil, and will defend him from his 
enemies, and co-operate in his mental and moral improve- 
ment, and will not rob him, or allow others to take his 
substance for naught. But this plane of governmental 
action can only be reached with the help of redeeming 
grace. And if good men will abstain from active connec- 
tion with governmental affairs in a country where the 
people rule, that means that the congregation of evil-doers 
will then control the State. Several cities are now re- 
ported to be in that condition in the United States. If 
citizenship has its rights, it also has its duties, and the 
followers of Christ are called on in this matter as in ev- 
ery other to set a good example. Politics, which is the 
science of government as much as any thing else, needs 
the salt of the gospel to save it from the corruption of 
sin. But how can it be received if those who have its 
light will not let it shine on this subject ? For want of 
clear perception of responsibilities in this direction sin is 
often allowed to enter a Legislature and there "frame 
mischief by a law," and sometimes to even invade the 
courts of justice, which ought above all other places 
(next to the Church) to be kept pure, and wrest judg- 



138 National Salvation* 

ment from what is right. Many of the judges are even 
now protesting that they cannot faithfully administer 
the laws because of the unwillingness of good citizens to 
serve on juries. All should understand that laws will not 
execute themselves; and if a people want a pure, wise, 
and honest government, it must, when occasion requires, 
have the help of every just man in the community. And 
the work of purifying and correcting the structure, and 
the administration of government, to be effective, must 
deal with the springs of political life. These in a popu- 
lar government are the party convention and the prima- 
ry election, and from thence the purifying influence can 
extend until it will finally wrestle with ''wickedness in 
high places." On this point the following quotation from 
the "Science of Politics," by Mill, is worthy of consider- 
ation : 

The primary, the caucus, and the convention are the real rul- 
ers of America, and the hand which guides these its master. In 
New York City in 1885 there were two hundred and sixty-six 
thousand voters. Of these two hundred and one thousand voted 
at the regular election and not over twenty -five thousand at the 
primary. And this proportion of the whole number of votes to 
the number of those who voted is nearly identical with that of 
the whole country. Thus it appears that out of the voting 
strength of the country^one out of every four does not vote at 
all, and nine out of every ten do not attend the primaries. It 
can hardly be necessary to call attention to the additional fact 
that the men who do attend are almost exclusively office-holders 
or office-seekers. Were they, every man of them, disinterested 
and honest men, it would not lessen the fault of 90 per cent, of 
the voting population in abandoning the more important of the 
two elections, and of more than 25 per cent, who renounce the 
duties of citizenship altogether. 

An American citizen has no right to have nothing to do with 
politics. His politics are not a dirty pool unless he makes them 
such, either by criminal neglect or by criminal conduct. For him 
to falter is to betray a serious, solemn trust, the gift of priceless 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan. 139 

endeavor, involving interests not all his own. The stability of 
civilization, the rights, privileges, and blessings of society secure 
only in good government not for himself alone, but for all his 
fellows for generations unborn, are all involved, and by his weak- 
ness, negligence, or folly may go down in a common ruin. 

A citizen is subpoenaed to serve on a jury. A matter of twenty 
dollars is at stake. It is contempt of the court and a misdemeanor 
to stay away. An election is proclaimed ; the social, financial, 
and civil life of the country is to be seriously affected. To stay 
away is not contempt of court, but contempt of the whole coun- 
try. To sleep at his post when the nation's life is in peril is 
death for the soldier. To sleep when an enemy strikes at its life 
by force of arms is not a greater wrong in the soldier than for 
the citizen to desert it at the ballot-box, when evils and vices 
come on apace to poison the life of the republic. And this ruin 
will not be the fall of " the common herd " alone. " Think not 
with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more 
than all the Jews." Americans of every class must in this mat- 
ter face a common ruin or a common danger. 

Fourthly, let the Holy Scriptures be made a text-book 
in every school, college, and university in the land. A 
knowledge of what they contain by all the inhabitants 
of a nation is the best possible preparation for the duties 
of citizenship. Without their light humanity sinks 
down into the mire of sin and becomes brutish ; or if de- 
votional, it will be credulous, fanatical, and superstitious. 
In all the past no other, book has exerted such an influ- 
ence in the affairs of the world, and apart from any be- 
lief in its inspiration and merely on account of the ef- 
fects it has already produced and the still mightier 
influences it is destined to wield among men, no person 
can fairly be said to be well informed who is unacquainted 
with its teachings. Beginning with creation, its thoughts 
range over the whole field of time and reach into eter- 
nity. It is the only reliable history we have of ancient 
times, and for this reason alone is entitled to a place in 
the school. As a literary production it has merits that 



140 National Salvation. 

are unsurpassed with thoughts so lofty and sublime 
as to make it indispensable to the poet and the orator. 
The truest insight into human life, with the knowledge 
most needed, showing the evils to which humanity is ex- 
posed and how they may be avoided, will be found within 
its pages. In addition it contains political ideas of the 
greatest value ; with a code of morals so perfect that it 
has never in a single particular been shown to be in er- 
ror, and a portrait gallery so rich and varied in experi- 
ence as to illustrate every phase of human life, exhibiting 
the retribution either here or hereafter of the transgressor 
and "the recompense of reward" for obedience in store 
for the faithful. Surely the doctrines, comniandments, 
ethical principles, and political ideas of such a book, with 
its geography, chronology, and unfulfilled prophecies, are 
worthy of a profound study by all. And any institution 
of learning that omits it from its curriculum is defective 
in an essential element of true education. 

The Sunday-school does some good : but with a volun- 
tary corps of teachers, and spending only thirty or forty 
minutes in a week on the lesson, it cannot be depended on 
to do this work with the accuracy and thoroughness its 
importance requires. Neither can it well be done from 
the pulpit. If it is undertaken by the latter, its discourses 
lose the element of worship, and become mere lectures. 
But it ought and can be taught in the class-room, and in 
the same way that any^other science is taught. On ex- 
amination it will appear that all the doctrines taught in 
the Holy Scriptures rest on a solid basis of facts, and can 
in a scientific way be demonstrated, and also that obedi- 
ence to its comniandments is not only for the glory of 
God, but also for the welfare of humanity. And the 
minister of religion who says believe this opinion or that, 
and the professor of political economy who says believe 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan. 141 

the doctrine of free trade or of a protective tariff, with- 
out first clearly giving the basis of facts and showing 
the grounds on which such belief is to rest, are both for- 
saking scientific methods, and missing what ought to be 
one of the great objects of education. Is not its chief 
function to awaken the mind, and by furnishing it with 
food for thought in an accurate statement of facts and 
principles lead it on the basis of full knowledge to think 
for itself? Creation, sin with its effects on individuals or 
on society, and redemption with its influence on persons, 
communities, or nations, are all facts, and so are the sta- 
tistics in this volume, and can be used in the class-room 
as facts are in a demonstration in astronomy. But this 
knowledge, so essential to the welfare not only of indi- 
viduals, but also of nations, is to-day excluded from all 
the public schools in the United States, and but rarely 
anywhere taught in its fullness. It is probable that ex- 
cej)t at the opening in worship not over one in ten of the 
colleges and universities make any educational use of the 
Bible whatever. And of the various theological schools 
all that can usually be said of them is that they teach 
what is necessary to sustain the denominational creed. 
If this is thought to be an unduly severe criticism, let 
those who think so point to a single treatise of divinity 
or chair of theology where the views of the Bible are 
taught on justice, liberty, taxation, sanitary regulations, 
or land legislation, although its light on these questions, 
when fairly understood and faithfully applied, is as ben- 
eficial to a nation to-day as ever. Some may claim that 
these subjects belong to the domain of law, medicine, and 
political economy, and not of theology, but the fact that 
they are revealed in the laws of God would entitle them 
to a place somewhere in the latter science; and when it 
is considered that these other branches of knowledge are 



142 National Salvation. 

in an atheistical state, and in consequence more or less 
blind to the truth, the need of the Church letting the 
light of the Scriptures shine on these subjects becomes 
doubly imperative. And may not silence on these impor- 
tant questions explain why in many places so little has 
been accomplished although there has been so much 
preaching of the gospel ; and also may it not in some 
measure account for the estrangement of the laboring 
classes from the Churches, particularly in cities, where 
the separation and diiference between rich and poor is so 
great ? But it shall not always be this way. The time 
is coming — God speed its drawing nigh ! — when it will be 
perceived that every principle the Scriptures reveal is of 
value and conducive to the welfare and happin'ess of hu- 
manity, and public sentiment will insist that they be 
taught in all their fullness in every school, college, uni- 
versity, and pulpit in the land. Then will be brought to 
pass that saying that " Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God," and the whole earth shall be filled with his knowl- 
edge and glory. Amen and amen ! 

On a review of these four points of national salvation 
it will appear that the second really includes the third 
and fourth. For the State only acknowledges God in so 
far as it observes his laws. And if the laws of God are 
to govern, that of course would require that they be 
studied, and that public instruction should be given in 
them to all in order that they can be generally under- 
stood and obeyed. Furthermore it will also appear that 
these four points very justly mark the path of national^ 
salvation at exactly where it stood over three thousand 
years ago. Then a great multitude, remembering the 
promises of God and under a leader, forsook the yoke 
and bondage of sin, and Him who is '^mighty to save" 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan. 143 

became their deliverer. They were then taught personal 
holiness in ten fundamental precepts, and the whole as- 
sembly collectively and in a public capacity as a nation 
through Christ acknowledged the only true God and ac- 
cepted his laws in ordering their governmental institu- 
tions, and by faithfully keeping them they were led into 
an exceedingly goodly land flowing with milk and honey. 
And any nation that will accept and adopt the princi- 
ples revealed in God's word for their guidance in person- 
al and governmental affairs will soon surpass in prosper- 
ity, intelligence, freedom from disease, and happiness 
what is here stated of the most favored country. Even 
to this day the most prosperous nations on the face of 
the earth have not attained to any thing like the happi- 
ness possible to them through the redemption in Christ. 
If all the inhabitants of a land were to move in the path 
of national salvation here pointed out, what an uplift 
would society receive! How knowledge would in- 
crease ! And how quickly would wealth accumulate that 
is now wasted and squandered in vice and luxury ! How 
health would be preserved that is now lost in dissipation, 
intemperance, and debauchery ! How purity and cour- 
age and industry and benevolence and all the virtues 
would be strengthened ! How reforms would travel 
apace that now barely move! And how rapidly would 
the glories and sj^lendors of the millennial day draw nigh ! 
And with the Gospels before us can any one doubt but 
that the Lord Jesus would receive all of "every kindred, 
every tribe" who would come unto him aright; and that 
in him "all the nations of the earth would be blessed?" 
And with so many barriers removed and all nations now 
open to the gospel, and the world-wide field so white for 
redemption's harvest, will not all the sacramental host of 
God's elect redouble their zeal and gird themselves afresh 



144 National Salvation, 

with power from on high for the toils and conflicts of 
making the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of his Christ? And he shall reign for- 
ever and ever. Amen. 

The sum of the whole matter is this : That sin is every- 
where the source of the world's misfortunes, and salva- 
tion in Christ is the only effectual remedy. Hence to 
avoid and prevent the one, and to invite and welcome the 
other, is manifestly the only sure way of safety either 
for a person, a family, or a nation. It is sin that causes 
all the vices of individuals and all the disorders that cor- 
rupt society. It is sin that shrivels up the sympathies of 
men and causes them to be selfish, clannish, and suspi- 
cious. If poverty and pestilence abound in a country, 
and the mind of many of its inhabitants is clouded with 
ignorance, and the land is filled with the cries of injus- 
tice and oppression, it is because sin is there. It is sin 
that keeps men away from the saving truths of Christ's 
salvation and ties them to error, superstitions, and com- 
mandments of men. So blinding and malignant is sin 
that it forges about its victim chains of bad habits and 
evil inclinations, that are stronger than bands of steel, 
until many, against their own interest and better judg- 
ment, resist all progress and every advance toward im- 
provement and deliverance. And it does this not only 
for individuals, but also for whole Commonwealths, until 
to this day many nations will not choose a republic, al- 
though the superiority of that form of government over 
monarchy or imperialism is manifest and beyond ques- 
tion, and large assemblies are often so bound by it that 
they will not change useless forms of procedure in the 
courts and ofiices of the government, although aware of 
their inconvenience. Thanks be unto God for the un- 
speakable gift of redemption that enables humanity to 



The Way from Egypt to Canaan, 145 

snap the bands of sin in sunder and let the ransomed of 
the Lord go free ! This it does not merely by strength- 
ening each individual who accepts Christ with the might 
and power of the Holy Ghost, hut also by offering each na- 
tion a social order and scheme of government the most favor- 
able for the elevation of humanity. And the amount of re-- 
deeming grace possessed by a nation determines the 
measure of its perception of these things and its possi- 
bilities for reform as well as the extent of its moral, ma- 
terial, and intellectual prosperity. But if a people, after 
"a more excellent way" has been shown them, will still 
cleave to old habits, old customs, old ceremonies in re- 
ligion, old parties in politics, or old forms of government, 
and for no other sufficient reason than because they are 
old, it shows their need of more fully putting on "the 
new man which after God is created in righteousness and 
true holiness." Let a man, a family, or a nation, accept 
the Lord Jesus Christ in all his fullness, and become 'per- 
fect in his great salvation^ and they will no longer like 
Ephraim be hopelessly chained to the ways of the past 
as an idol ; or be a worshiper of antiquity, or of any thing 
else but the only true God. And as they move upward 
and onward in the path of personal and national holiness 
and salvation, exulting in the liberty and freedom of a 
God-given deliverance from sin, with a glad heart they 
will be caused to sing : 

Now I am from bondage freed, 

Every band is riven. 
Jesus makes me free indeed, 

Just as free as heaven. 
'Tis a glorious liberty, 

the wondrous story ! 
I w\as bound, but now I'm free. 

Glory ! glory ! glorv ! 
10 



Examples of Rational Saluation ^^^ DestnlGtion. 



"I will make of thee a great nation." — Genesis xii. 2. 

"The kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the governor among 
the nations." — Psalms xxii. 28, 

"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations 
that forget God." — Psalms ix. 17. 

"This is the interpretation of .... MENE; God hath 
numbered thy kingdom, and hath brought it to an end." — Dan- 
iel V. 26, 

"If thou wilt return, Israel, saith the Lord, unto me shalt 
thou return : and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out 
of my sight, then shalt thou not be removed; and thou shalt 
swear, As the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in right- 
eousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in 
him shall they glory." — Jeremiah iv. 1, 2. 

" At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and con- 
cerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy 
it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from 
their evil, I will repent of the evil that 1 thought to do unto them. 
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and con- 
cerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; if it do evil in my 
sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, 
wherewith I said I would benefit them." — Jeremiah xviii, 7-10. 

" See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death 
and evil ; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy 
God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and 
his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multi- 
ply, and that the Lord thy God may bless thee in the land whith- 
er thou goest in to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, and 
thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other 
gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye 
shall surely perish." — Deuteronomy xxx. 15-18. 

"Qf all the dispositions and habits which lead to political 



Examples of National Salvation and Destruction. 147 

prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In 
vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should 
labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
, firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere pol- 
itician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cher- 
ish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with 
private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of obli- 
gation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investiga- 
tion in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the 
supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. 
Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education 
on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both for- 
bid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion 
of religious principle." — Washington's Farewell Address. 

" If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that 
are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and 
fearful name, the Lord thy God; then the Lord will make thy 
plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great 
plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of 
long continuance. And he will bring upon thee again all the 
diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall 
cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague, which 
is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring 
upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in 
number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude ; 
because thou didst not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy 
God. And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over 
you to do you good, and to multiply you ; so the Lord will rejoice 
over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and ye shall 
be plucked from off* the land whither thou goest in to possess it." 
— Deuteronomy xxviii. 58-63. 

WHY should the State refuse to take cognizance of 
the fall in Adam and of redemption in Christ, 
the two most important events in the history of the hu- 
man race ? Their influences are so far-reaching that they 
affect the happiness and destiny of every human being; 
and it is only by the State adjusting itself to their exist- 



148 National Salvation. 

ence tliat its best work can be done. And the State that 
declines to recognize them leaves the people over whom it 
rules in many things defenseless and exposed to the evils of 
sinj and not under the most favorable conditions for salva- 
tion; for the trite political maxim that ''in union there 
is strength" aj)plie8 equally as well in guarding against 
sin as in repelling invasion. One man or one family, by 
a great deal of carefulness and watchfulness, can resist 
sin, but it becomes much easier when all in a community 
undertake the work, and still more so when a whole na- 
tion adopts it as a governmental policy. There was once 
a nation that did this, and framed their government and 
adjusted its every act in the light of the fall in Adam 
and of redemption in Christ; and while true to these 
two principles no nation in all the annals of time has 
ever made such a brilliant record. It advanced more 
rapidly in civilization than any other nation has ever 
done in the same length of time. We speak to-day 
about the inhabitants of Spain, Eussia, or Germany, after 
ages and centuries and millenniums of training, as still 
not being ready for a republican government. But this 
people, from a state bordering on slavery, in a few years 
became ready for freedom, and preserved their liberty for 
centuries. In war they were victorious beyond prece- 
dent, and never turned their backs to their enemies while 
true to these two great principles. They had such immu- 
nity from disease that they lived long and mightily in- 
creased in numbers. They had such prosperity that their 
threshing reached unto the vintage, and the vintage 
unto the sowing time, and they ate their bread to the 
full; and pauperism, the great open sore of modern civ- 
ilization, that baffles the wisdom of the legislator and 
the zeal and self-denial of the philanthropist, became un- 
known among them. All theix* statesnaen from Moses tQ 



Examples of National Salvation and J)estruction. 149 

Solomon understood the value in governmental affairs 
of these two princij^les, and that to fear God and keep 
his commandments was the salvation of a man or of a 
nation. These were the men that without tarnish con- 
served the honor and glory of the nation. But the lat- 
ter Hebrew statesmen from Solomon to Zedekiah, as a 
rule, thought that the recognition of the only true God 
was not imperative on the State, and these were the 
men that led the Commonwealth to its ruin. The peo- 
ple, under their misrule, soon began to eat their bread in 
scarcity and to see disease and pestilence stalking 
through the land, and in battle to turn their backs to their 
enemies, until the nation went down in Babylonish cap- 
tivity. And these events are recorded by the Holy 
Ghost for our guidance in political science, as much as 
the doctrine of justification by faith, and as an encour- 
agement and a warning, and an example to all nations. 

SPAIN AND ENGLAND. 

The reception of redeeming grace was undoubtedly 
the prime cause of the national deliverance of the Is- 
raelites from bondage in Egypt and of their conquest 
and political supremacy in the land of Canaan. And 
through that nation God gave an example — as it were 
an object lesson — of the national salvation that redemp- 
tion can accomplish for any nation and for all nations. 
And in proportion as nations receive and accept this 
grace just so in all ages has been the measure of their 
prosperity. Spain and England will serve as modern 
examples. They are both insular, with the advantages 
of soil, climate, and location for the Avorld's commerce 
decidedly in favor of the former ; and her people were not 
wanting in the valoi^ and enterprise necessary for a great 
people, and three centuries ago she was beyond compar- 



150 National Satvatiofi. 

ison the foremost nation in all the world. She then had 
vast j)08sessions in Africa, Italy, Sardinia, Germany, the 
Netherlands, the East and West Indies, and in North 
and South America. The world at that time was in her 
grasp, and with her advantages of location and pre-emi- 
nence, it would seem as if it were destined to so remain. 
England at this time was but the southern half of a re- 
mote island in the northern seas, with but little commerce 
and without any possessions other than Calais, in Prance, 
and a few counties in Ireland. Columbus had recently 
discovered a lost continent, and as Spain had furnished 
the ships and men for the enterprise, she reaped most of 
the benefit. Luther had also soon after made the far 
more important discovery of the lost principle of justifi- 
cation by faith, but both discoveries were made under 
the jurisdiction of the Spanish crow^n, and both could 
easily have been turned to its profit. Had she accepted 
the second discovery as cordially as she did the first, it 
would have linked her in with the progress of the human 
mind and given her such immunity from disease that her 
population would have rapidly increased in numbers, and 
it is highly probable that she would have founded colo- 
nies and had her language spoken not only in Central 
and South America, but also on the Congo, at the Cape 
of Good Hope, in the Transvaal, at Zanzibar, Madagas- 
car, Ceylon, all through the Malay Archipelago, and over 
the immense regions of Australia. The apparent proba- 
bilities then were ten times greater that Spain would have 
this glory and honor than that England should ever pos- 
sess it. But the fate of her empire trembled in the bal- 
ance when the test was made of her fidelity to " the truth 
as it is in Jesus " and of her fitness to be custodian of the 
"lively oracles," that under her rule the news of salva- 
tion might spread to earth's remotest bounds. What 



Examples of National Salvation and Destruction. 151 

will Spain do in the day of her visitation? Will she see 
her power and glory decline and have "Ichabod " written 
on her scepter and crown, and let the kingdom of God 
be taken away from her as it was from the Jews (Matt, 
xxi. 43) "and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof? " or will she be faithful to the trust and continue 
increasing with the increase of God ? 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife with truth or falsehood for the good or evil side. 
Some great cause God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or 

blight, 
Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right. 

— Lowell. 

And the triumph of right in Spain was not at that 
time 80 altogether hopeless as many think. She then had 
many learned men who fully understood the value of a 
pure gosjDcl and the urgent need that existed for a re- 
form in the teachings of the Church. And her great 
Cardinal Ximenes, at the cost of eighty thousand ducats, 
had just given the Holy Scriptures to the Spanish Church 
in a work (the '^ Complutensian Polyglot" 15, 17) that to 
this day is a prodigy of learning and scholarship. But 
unfortunately the machinery of the Inquisition for the 
subjection of the Moors who had recently been conquered 
still existed in the nation, with its courts and officers in 
every district, and in the crisis it was an easy matter to turn 
the edge of its sword against the reformers. It not hav- 
ing to establish anew, but already existing, its use did 
not provoke popular tumults, as when it was set up in 
France and the Netherlands. The martyr fires soon 
commenced to burn with a lurid glare, and under the 
decree of this tribunal were put to death the very men 
and women who would have led Spain out of the worse 
than Egyptian darkness and bondage of sin and brought 



152 National Salvation, 

her into the gospel-promised land of purity, wisdom, and 
prosperity. After this the nation became like Samson 
when his eyes were put out. Such blindness fell upon 
her rulers that they became unable to "read the signs of 
the times" or to understand the temper of their age. 
Led by the spirit of bigotry, which is not of the gospel, 
they adventured much of her treasures of men and mon- 
ey in a vain effort to conquer England, and saw nearly 
all perish in the ''Invincible Armada." Instead of re- 
membering that " the throne is established by righteous- 
ness," and governing with justice and conceding liberty 
as fast as her people were ready to receive it, they adopt- 
ed a policy almost the reverse until, goaded by bad laws 
and harsh administrations, province after province re- 
volted. And to crown all her other misfortunes a blight 
fell upon her armies, so that her cause was not sustained 
in the field, and she was unable to restore her authority, 
until to-day Cuba, Porto Eico, and the Philippine Islands 
are all that remain outside of Spain of the immense em- 
pire of Charles Y. Not only has her dominion shriveled 
and withered under the blight, but also the minds of her 
people, so that for centuries she has not produced a sin- 
gle profound thinker or an eminent scholar, inventor, dis- 
coverer, explorer, or illustrious warrior. Her govern- 
ment is now without credit, and the people dwelling 
within her borders are sunk down in the mire of pover- 
ty, ignorance, and superstition. So deep is her degra- 
dation that the language that the Prophet Ezekiel uses 
to describe the fate of Egypt would to some extent ap- 
ply to Spain: "It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; 
neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations : 
for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule 
over the nations." How are the mighty fallen and the 
weapons of war perished ! 



l^xamples of National Salvation and Destruction. 153 

On the other hand, in England the Puritans welcomed 
the discoveries of Luther, and her rulers, not from love 
of Christ, but through self-interest, were forced to take 
that side. And the gospel gave the nation purity, wis- 
dom, a love for liberty, and such intelligence that her 
mechanics became able to spin thread and weave cloth 
by machinery, and to apply steam as a motor on the land 
and steam as a motor on the sea. Along with this do- 
mestic prosperity the gospel caused her statesmen to be- 
come wise in council, and her warriors valiant in battle, 
until to-day her empire on land and on sea is world-wide, 
and her pound sterling is at par in every mart of trade 
throughout the habitable earth. What has cast down 
the one and exalted the other but the national reception 
of the grace of God in England and its rejection by 
Spain ? And the very same causes are at work, and are 
now producing the same results in the New World. 
Why are the people of one continent so active, prosper- 
ous, and enterprising that, with mills, factories, tele- 
graphs, telephones, reapers, cultivators, and railways, 
they are moving for the restoration of man's lost estate 
and empire and dominion over nature ; while the inhab- 
itants of the other continent remain dull, feeble, sluggish, 
and move but slowly along the path of national renown ? 
The cause cannot be in the soil or climate or mineral 
wealth of Mexico or South America, for when compared 
in these particulars with Canada and the United States 
the advantage is decidedly with the former. The only 
explanation that ever will be found satisfactory lies in 
the religious difference of the two continents. 

AN ELECT NATION. 

Here it may be proper to consider the outlook for the 
United States of America. The teachings of history all 



1 54 National Salvation, 

indicate that nations are chosen and raised up for special 
purposes like individuals. When the possibilities of the 
United States are fairly estimated it would indicate that 
its mission must be exceptionally high. The great em- 
pires of antiquity all existed on the borders of Judea, and 
were within easy access of the Israelites. For the full 
fifteen hundred years of the existence of the Hebrew na- 
tion all the centers of civilization moved about Jerusalem 
as the pivotal point. It was first in Egypt, then in Baby- 
lon, afterward in Greece, and at the close in Eome ; and 
missionaries could have evangelized these nations easier 
from Judea than any other one country. The very ex- 
istence of the Israelites as a nation founded on religion, 
with their marvelous history, was itself in that day a 
standing advertisement of the gospel. It was undoubt- 
edly the will of Grod, although the nation seemed never 
to understand it, and sometimes not even its leaders, that 
the Hebrews should be a chosen generation, a holy priest- 
hood of teachers, preachers, physicians, publicists, pas- 
tors, evangelists, and apostles, that through them all na- 
tions should know of the only true God. Will the United 
States, which is beyond question the chosen nation of 
modern times for the evangelization of the world, any 
better understand its mission ? If Mount Zion, with its 
mild climate, fertile soil, and central location, was "beau- 
tiful for situation," what shall we say of the great, supe- 
rior advantages of the United States of America? 
Missionaries from there can reach any one of the four 
quarters of the globe easier than Jonah by even the best 
route could have gone from Jerusalem to Nineveh. South 
America, the Islands of the Pacific Ocean, Japan, China, 
Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Zanzibar, Madagascar, the Congo 
State, and all Europe are equally accessible, and mission- 
aries from the United States can get an entrance to these 



Examples of National Salvation and Destruction. 155 

places and find less difficulty in their way than those 
coming from any other country. In addition, when its 
resources, agricultural, mineral, manufacturing, and com- 
mercial, are estimated — and these things are all factors in 
the problem — it will appear that its surplus wealth is alone 
more than sufficient to preach and teach the gospel to ev- 
ery living creature on the face of the earth. Along with 
its wealth and accessibility to all nations by an easy and 
rapid transit, when its schools, colleges, universities, and 
publishing houses are considered, and existing at a time 
when steam, electricity, and the printing-press can be used 
for the transmission of thought, it will appear that for the 
plans of God in the evangelization of the world it is bet- 
'ter equipped for the work than any other nation has ever 
been in all the past. With its advantages of soil, climate, 
location, and existing at such an era of opportunities in 
the world's history as has not come to any other nation 
in all the past, what will it do with all its vast endow- 
ments ? Will it use them like the man to whom was in- 
trusted five talents, who increased them five more ? or will 
it become selfish and sensual like the wicked and slothful 
servant to whom was intrusted one talent, who went and 
hid it " in the earth," and for it was cast into outer dark- 
ness ? If the inhabitants of the land will forget G-od and, 
like the men of jN^oah's time, have no higher thought 
than to plant and to build, to eat and drink, and after 
the flesh live an animal sort of life, there is a lesson in 
the overthrow of the antediluvian world that it would be 
well for the people of the United States to study. And 
if the Government will trample on the principles of ever- 
lasting right, and violate laws like the Sabbath, that are 
far more sacred and holy than any cup or chalice that 
was ever dedicated to a temple service, there is a lesson 
in the handwriting that appeared on the wall of the 



156 National Sahation, 

king's palace at Babylon that it would be well for the 
rulers and statesmen of the nation to understand. 

The public buildings of some of the States and the cap- 
itol at Washington are fine structures ; but there was once 
a temple at Jerusalem composed of finer and more mass- 
ive materials, and of that edifice, on account of the sins 
of the nation, there remaineth not '' one stone upon an- 
other." The uncompleted tower of Babel, the destruc- 
tion of Nineveh and Tyre, and the broken columns and 
shattered walls of the Colosseum at Rome all give empha- 
sis to the declaration of God's word that "the nation 
and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish." 

Nations often spend/ immense sums for fortifications 
on their frontier and in supplying them with the muni- 
tions of war, as if they could only be attacked from with- 
out, althotigh history declares that except in a few rare 
instances they are always like individuals and Churches : 
destroyed from within. Whenever a people get to be 
any size they can only be overthrown by the co-opera- 
tion of their own vices. But let corruption sap the man- 
ly virtues until efi^eminacy takes the place of industry, 
courage, and temperance, and no matter how numerous 
and wealthy they may become they can be overthrown. 
In fact, their very size, numbers, and prosperity, with the 
pride, luxury, and sensuality which they are almost certain 
to beget, becomes the main element in their destruction. 
A poet standing in Eome on the Palatine Hill, whose 
very soil is the crumbled brick and decayed monuments 
of fallen empires, musing on the lessons of history, wrote : 

" The moral of all human tales, 
'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past : 

First freedom, and then glory — when that fails, ^ 
Wealth, vice, corruption — barbarism at last. 
And history with all her volumes vast 

Hath but one page." 



Examples of National Salvation and Destritction. 157 

Byron, in these few linen, has really epitomized the his- 
tory of all the great nations of the past. In a migration 
something like the journeyings of the Israelites, the gath- 
ering of adventurers to Eome at its founding, or in mod- 
ern times the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, or at a still 
more recent period the "Westward, ho ! " of crossing the 
Mississippi and settling in the regions beyond, leaves the 
stolid and the abject behind ; and the daring, the coura- 
geous, and the enterprising come together, and the nucleus 
of a nation is formed. If they start about on an equality, 
so that some labor becomes imperative on all, their man- 
ners will be simple, the discipline of toil will give them 
mental and bodil}^ vigor, and the conditions become fiivor- 
able for the rise of a great State. Its course then will be 
much like that of a shot fired in the air from a gun at 
an elevation of forty-five degrees. As it leaves the muz- 
zle it is all vigor, and rapidly ascends, exulting in its 
strength and freedom, until it reaches its zenith in glory, 
wealth, splendor, and dominion, and then it commences 
to fall. At first its decline is not more than perceptible, 
but it soon becomes more manifest, until toward its 
close, impelled by its own vices, its progress downward 
becomes almost perpendicular. The United States has 
already passed through the first three stages Byron de- 
scribes, and so swiftly that although but a century old 
to-day it stands peerless not only among the nations of 
our time, but of all the past. Will it now from that em- 
inence and summit of earthly glory commence to descend 
through the other stages of vice, corruption, and barba- 
rism ? God forbid. And yet by reason of sin it is ex- 
posed to the same evils that destroyed Judea and Eome, 
and perhaps in a greater degree on account of the unre- 
strained liberty it grants to all, and the enormous wealth 
that has only just commenced pouring in upon it and is 



158 National Salvation, 

now estimated to be increasing in volume at the rate of 
six millions a day. What a calamity its fall would prove 
not only to its own citizens, but to oppressed and down- 
trodden humanity everywhere ! How its overthrow 
would retard the spread of free governments in other 
nations ! How aristocracy and every form of despotism 
on the face of the earth, and even hell itself, would exult 
and rejoice over its downfall ! Will not its citizens labor 
to avert it, and leave it as an injunction to their children ? 
Will not office-holders, in the face of this danger that is 
now upon us, rise above party and concert measures for 
its preservation ? Will not the editor with his paper, the 
professor with his students, and the Sabbath - school 
teacher with his class assist ? But above all others, will 
not those who can do more than any and all other call- 
ings and professions combined, the ministers of the gos- 
pel, help and ''declare the whole counsel of God" as 
heaven and their own conscience and the public welfare 
require ? 

The Constitution of the United States is in many re- 
spects an admirable instrument of government, but with 
one very grave defect. It nowhere acknowledges the 
authority of God and the lordship of Christ over the na- 
tion * And this omission in effect says that the recog- 

"^It is sometimes claimed that, because the Constitution, in 
reckoning the ten days allowed the President to consider a bill, 
says " Sundays excepted," and also because it says done " in the 
year of our Lord," it does recognize God. But this argument is 
so weak and far-fetched that it does not need to be refuted. In 
the treaty with Tripoli, made and confirmed by the very men 
who assisted in framing the Constitution, it is declared ( " U. S. 
Revised Statutes," edition of 1865, p. 756. Article XI.): "The 
government of the United States is not in any sense founded on 
the Christian religion." This silence did not escape the atten- 



Examples of National Salvation and Destruction. 159 

nition of the only true God is no part of the business of 
the State, and for a century has been that way construed. 
It virtually draws a line of separation between Christ 
and matters of government that has a most undesirable 
effect on those who are to administer the political affairs 
of the nation. Many young men, discerning the separa- 
tion as they enter on public life, are often caused by it to 
forsake fellowship with the Lord Jesus and the possession 
of his great salvation. While there are exceptions, office- 
holders as a class, as their oath requires, are always gov- 
erned by the Constitution, and when that is atheistical it 
cannot fail to have a large influence to lead them in that 
direction, and through them on the public life of the na- 
tion, and in some measure over all the inhabitants of the 
land. The caucus convention, judicial tribunals, and ev- 
ery political assembly held under that Constitution, from 
the least town Board of Aldermen up to the National Con- 
gress, all show the effect of its silence on this most im- 
portant subject, and in consequence these bodies are us- 
ually wanting in solemnity. Some of them, even when 
deciding matters of the gravest consequences, are at times 
so tumultuous as to differ but little from a mob. The 

tion of Judge Story, and in his commentary on the Constitution 
he says : " It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs 
whether any free government can be permanent where the 
public worship of God and the support of religion constitute 
no part of the policy or duty of the State in any assignable 
shape. The future experience of Christendom, and chiefly of 
the American States, must settle this problem, as yet new in the 
history of the world, abundant as it has been in the experiments 
in the theory of government. But the duty of supporting re- 
ligion, and especially the Christian religion, is very different 
from the right to force the consciences of other men, or to pun- 
ish them for worshiping God in the manner which they believe 
their accountability to him requires." 



160 National Salvation, 

nation in its governmental aifairs, having rejected the 
influence which above all others would most restrain the 
evil passions of men, the door is now open in politics for 
fraud, for mud-throwing, for campaign lies, for conscience 
being laid aside, and for all sorts of trickery being con- 
sidered fair in elections. 

And this omission of the Constitution to recognize the 
claims of Christ not only aifects the personnel of govern- 
ment, but also the character of the work it does. Much 
of it is educational where it is of the utmost importance 
that instruction in morals of a definite character should 
be given ; but only as the State recognizes Christ will it 
be enabled to teach with clearness on this subject. On 
this account but little instruction in this branch of knowl- 
edge is even attempted in the public schools, and the lit- 
tle given is so vague and indefinite as to be almost if not 
altogether worthless, and it is but little better in any of 
the colleges or universities controlled by the State. With 
the public schools Godless and at least half of the higher 
institutions of learning in the same condition, and an in- 
tense commercialism abroad in the land, that regardless 
of man's spiritual and immortal nature demands that ev- 
ery thing shall be done according to the precepts of Mam- 
mon's altar, does it require a prophet's ken to discern 
where all this will land us in a few generations unless 
there is a change ? The nation will soon be without God 
in the world, and sin will destroy the inhabitants of the 
land as it did the two cities of the plain and the seven 
nations of Canaan and the whole antediluvian world. 
But if the State would recognize Christ, and if it were 
done in good faith, its policy and work would then be 
directed in accordance with the welfare and preservation 
of the nation not only in educational matters, but in the 
right of administration of justice on divorce^ temperance, 



Examples of National Salvation and Destruction. 161 

a proper observance of the Sabbath, and every moral 
question. 

The Constitution has been of incalculable benefit to the 
nation, but it ought not to blind us to this defect. When 
it was formed opinions about its powers and authority 
were very different to what they are now. The States 
were then considered as supreme, and merely clothed a 
central agency of government with authority to do some 
things that were common to all and with the express 
understanding that the powers not delegated were "re- 
served to the States respectively or to the people." But 
with a uniform system of coinage, of weights and meas- 
ures, of postal communications, a net- work of railroads 
and telegraph lines, extending over the whole nation, and 
a common language among all the peojDle, it was inevita- 
ble that power should gravitate into the hands of the 
general Government. It is often claimed that the cen- 
tralization of political power in the National Government 
has been caused by the late civil war, but that only has- 
tened and solidified what was already coming. Up to 
1776, and for some years after, it is probable that the 
charters of every one of the thirteen colonies recog- 
nized the only true God and redemption in Christ. But 
since then so great and overshadowing has become the 
influence and example of the National Constitution that 
it is now doubtful if there is a State in the Union that 
docs. But the doctrine that the acknowledgment of the 
only true God and of the lordship of Christ over the na- 
tion is no part of the business of the great State is not 
new and was not for the first time adopted as a govern- 
mental policy with the establishment of the Constitution 
of the United States. All the Pharaohs held to it strong- 
ly, and one of them said to Moses: "Who is the Lord, 
that I should obey his voice?" But that way of think- 
11 



162 - National Salvation. 

ing proved his ruin. It was with Belshazzar and with 
the high priest Caiaphas, and it proved the ruin of both of 
them, and also of the respective Governments they rep- 
resented. And often since then in government " the stone 
which the builders rejected is become the head of the 
corner." Therefore, seeing that the rejection of Christ 
from recognition by the State favors fraud in elections 
and corruption in all the public business, and is fraught 
with peril and danger to the nation ; and instead of being 
a help is a hinderance to good government, preventing 
it from doing its best work, and from reaching its larg- 
est degree of usefulness ] and also that it is contrary to 
the command of God '' that all men should honor the 
Son, even as they honor the Father." (John v. 23.) 
The question suggests itself: Shall it continue in the 
United States of America? What does the j)atriot say 
who desires to see the welfare of the people and the free- 
dom of the nation preserved ? AVhat says the far-seeing 
statesman with the facts of history before him, and the 
annals of time full of the wrecks of empires that have 
gone down from this very cause ? But above all others, 
what says the follower of Christ whose eyes, to some ex- 
tent at least, must be open to discern the nation's possi- 
bilities for good not only to its own inhabitants, but to 
mankind over all the earth, and its adaptation to the plans 
of God for the world-wide redemption of the race ? If 
the United States were blotted out from the face of the 
earth, where could another nation be found to take its 
place, and lead the world's progress in arts, in science, in 
literature, in philosophy, in inventive genius, in commer- 
cial activity, in manufacturing enterprise, and to set an 
example before all nations of the benefits of free institu- 
tions and popular self-government ? Not one of the tribes 
of Africa could do this for countless ages, Neither could 



Examples of National Salvation and Destruction, 163 

China or India or Persia or priest-ridden Mexico or South 
America. Nor would the down-trodden people of Europe, 
oppressed with superstition and an excessive veneration for 
royalty and an order of nobility, be soon able for this work- 
Australia would likely be the next nation ready to lead ; 
but even there centuries must elapse before its resources 
would be sufficiently developed and its people inoculated 
with republican ideas, and raised to that moral and intel- 
lectual standard that would fit them for that greatest of 
all national glories, the honor of leading the world's prog- 
ress. At the present time, so closely connected with the 
onward march of civilization in all the earth is the Unit- 
ed States that its destruction would retard human prog- 
ress, and defer the moral conquest of the nations to Christ 
five hundred and perhaps a thousand years. When made 
aware of the danger of such a calamity occurring, what 
true disciple of the Lord Jesus, desiring the spread of 
peace on earth and good-will among men, can refrain from 
saying: " God bless and preserve the Great Eejniblic ! and 
God speed the coming of national salvation in all its full- 
ness everywhere, but particularly to that nation in which, 
above all others of modern times, the hopes of humanity 
centers?" 

Sail on, ship of state; 
Sail on, Union strong and great. 
Humanity, witli all its fears. 
With all the hopes of future yeai>!, 
Hangs Ijreatliless on thy fate. 



TliB Sallatti. 



"Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." — Exodus xx. 8. 

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." — Revelation i. 10. 

"Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary." 
— Leviticus xix. 30. 

"On the Sabbath-day he entered into the synagogue, and 
taught."— ifar^ i. 21. 

" The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blame- 
less." — Matthew xii. 5. 

"As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sab- 
bath-day." — Luhe iv. 16. 

" Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitation upon the 
Sabbath-day." — Exodus xxxv. 3. 

"It was the Sabbath-day when Jesus made the clay, and 
opened his eyes." — John ix. 14. 

" Hallow my Sabbaths ; and they shall be a sign between me 
and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." — 
Ezekiel xx. 20. 

" Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom 
Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this 
bond on the Sabbath-day ? " — Luke xiii. 16. 

"Without a Sabbath there is no worship; without worship, 
no religion; and without religion there is no permanent free- 
dom." — Montelemhert. 

"For the permanency of the Sabbath we argue its place in the 
Decalogue, where it stands enshrined among the moralities of a 
rectitude that is immutable and everlasting." — Thomas Chalmers. 

"And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had 
made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work 
which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and 
hallowed it : because that in it he rested from all his work which 
(rod had created." — Genesis ii. 2^ 3, 



The Sabbath, 165 

"He saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath- 
days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their 
peace. And when he had looked round about on them with 
anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith 
unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it 
out: and his hand was restored whole as the other." — 3fark 
Hi. 4, 5. 

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy 
pleasure on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the 
holy of the Lord, honorable ; and shalt honor him, not doing 
thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking 
thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord : 
and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, 
and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father : for the 
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." — Isaiah Mil. 13 ^ I4. 

" Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God 
hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy 
work : but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : 
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy 
daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine 
ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
within thy gates ; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant 
may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a serv- 
ant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought 
thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out 
arm : therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the 
Sabbath-day." — Deuteronomy v. 12^ IS. 

" In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on 
the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses ; as also 
wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they 
brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day: and I testified 
against them m the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt 
men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of 
ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and 
in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and 
said unto them. What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane 
the Sabbath-day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our 
God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city ? yet ye bring 
more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came 
to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before 



166 National Salvation. 

the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and 
charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath : 
and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no 
burden be brought in on the Sabbath-day. So the merchants and 
sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. 
Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye 
about the wall ? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From 
that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath. And I com- 
manded the Levites, that they should cleanse themselves, and 
that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sab- 
bath-day. Remember me, my God, concerning this also, and 
spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy." — Nehemiah 
xiii. 15-22, 

" Thus said the Lord unto me ; Go and stand in the gate of the 
children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and 
by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem ; and 
say unto them. Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah, 
and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter 
in by these gates : Thus saith the Lord ; Take heed to yourselves, 
and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the 
gates of Jerusalem ; neither carry forth a burden out of your 
houses on the Sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow 
ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers. But they 
obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stift*, 
that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. And it shall 
come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, 
to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sab- 
bath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day, to do no w^ork therein; 
then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes 
sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, 
they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem : and this city shall remain forever. And they shall 
come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusa- 
lem, and from the land of Benjamin, und from the plain, and 
from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-ofier- 
ings, and sacrifices, and meat-ofierings, and incense, and bringing 
sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the Lord^ But if ye will 
not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath-day, and not to bear 
a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sab- 



The Sabbath. 167 

bath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it 
shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be 
quenched." — Jeremiah xvii. 19-27. 

SIN and salvation are the two great facts in the his- 
tory of the human race, and it is all important that 
both should be well known ; and one day in seven is in- 
dispensable for this use. Not that this supersedes the 
necessity of instruction in the Holy Scriptures in institu- 
tions of learning on other days of the week. As far as 
possible every child ought to be acquainted with the doc- 
trine, discipline, experience, and possibilities of redemp- 
tion. But over and above the instruction in holy things 
given by the schools, and from the printed page, there is 
need of the Sabbath as a day of rest, and that all, old and 
young, may on that day meet in the great congregation 
and hear the ''preached word," and use the means of 
grace, and attend on the ordinances of religion. So inti- 
mate is the union between the Sabbath and true religion 
that one will not long exist without the other. If men 
or families do not keep the Sabbath, it is almost certain 
that they are without salvation. If a nation has no Sab- 
bath, the kingdom of God, with all that redemption 
means, has not come to that people. A priesthood and 
idolatry can live and thrive without one ; but the Church, 
the pulpit, and a gospel ministry will stand or fall with 
the Sal)bath. Its destruction in a nation is nothing short 
of treason to all the dearest interests of humanity. It is 
manifest that redemption has a marvelous influence on 
the prosperity, intelligence, health, safety, and happiness 
of a people. But the Sabbath is the only door through 
which by faith in Christ they can enter the goodly land 
and become possessed of its blessings. It is the sheet- 
anchor that fastens redemption to the earth. Hence the 
public desecration of the Sabbath strikes at the deares 



168 National Salvation. 

interests of society, and will undermine the peace, wel- 
fare, happiness, and prosperity of any people. You might 
to-day take the nations of the earth, and where there is 
no Sabbath there wages are lowest, and where it is most 
observed they are the highest. It is the same with oth- 
er things, like teachers, schools, colleges, newspapers, phy- 
sicians, hospitals, banks, factories, railroads, and tele- 
graph lines. Where it is best observed there these things 
will be found in the greatest abundance, and where it is 
least observed will be found their greatest scarcity and 
dearth. Eemove the Sabbath from a nation, and you 
strangle among that people the very life of the things 
that are true, things that are pure, things that are just, 
things that are honest, and things that are lovely and of 
good report. Eob a nation of the Sabbath, and you leave 
it in its sins, with the only door of escape shut and barred 
against it. Surely such an institution cannot be too high- 
ly prized and too carefully guarded. Tt was instituted 
amid the beauties of a sinless Eden, and designed to be a 
perpetual reminder of the (Creator, and of the homage due 
unto him, and of stated times of worship, and also for 
man's well-being, that only with its rest and in commun- 
ion with God can his physical and spiritual nature be 
preserved unimpaired. Moses at Sinai instituted various 
holy days and Sabbaths of weeks and of years that 
. have all passed away with that dispensation. However, 
the principle on which they were founded is true, and 
when convenient it is still desirable to have those who 
would retain the knowledge and favor of God come to- 
gether for a series of meetings in the spring, and again 
spend some time at a camp-meeting in the fall, and also 
occasionally to let their land lie fallow for a year. But 
these enactments were local, and confined in their appli- 
cation to the Israelites, and in the rigid letter of their 



. The Sabbath. 169 

exactness have all passed away with the giving of the 
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Not so with the 
Sabbath of the Decalogue. It was not first instituted by 
Moses at Sinai, but already in existence, and the people 
were then only enjoined to '' remember " it, and it did not 
pass away with that dispensation any more than " Thou 
shalt not kill or steal," or any other of the Ten Com- 
mandments " written with the finger of God " on the two 
tables of stone. These were given to Adam, and through 
him to all his posterity, and are for the observance of 
mankind everywhere and for all time ; and the gospel 
does not make void a jot or tittle of them. God forbid 1 
Yea, rather it establishes every one of them in all their 
fullness and purity ; and among them the Sabbath is the 
key-stone of the ten. Take it away, and the knowledge 
and worship of the only true God ceases in the earth, and 
idolatry will appear, and man will sink so deep in deprav- 
ity that from out of the unrenewed '' heart will proceed 
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, 
false witness, blasphemies." 

Blackstone, in his "Commentaries," Book 4, Chapter 
63, says : '• Besides the notorious indecency and scandal 
of permitting any secular business to be publicly trans- 
acted on that day in a country professing Christianity, 
and the corruption of morals which usually follows its prof- 
anation^ the keeping holy of one day in seven as a time 
of relaxation and refreshment, as well as of public wor- 
ship, is of inestimable benefit to a State considered mere- 
ly as a civil institution. By the help of conversation and 
society it harmonizes the manners of the lower classes, 
which would otherwise degenerate into a sordid poverty 
and savage selfishness of sj^irit ; it enables the industri- 
ous workman to resume his occupation in the ensuing 
week with health and cheerfulness ; it impresses on the 



170 National Salvation, 

minds of the people that sense of duty to God so neces- 
sary to make them good citizens, but which yet would 
be worn out and effaced by an unremitting continuance 
of labor, without any stated times of recalling them to 
the worship of their Maker." 

In these few lines Blackstone has very nearly stated 
the whole case, except that he does not give sufficient 
emphasis to the benefits of attendance on a preached 
gospel. However, the ministry that led the public wor- 
ship of God in his day were, as a rule, not much of a 
preaching clergy. But the subordinate benefits that he 
alludes to, to be derived from a proper observance of the 
Sabbath, are not to be lightly estimated. Like an angel 
of mercy from heaven are its weekly visits to the toil- 
worn nations of earth, that the body may on that day 
be rested, its waste repaired, and that it may be afresh 
invigorated with health and strength for the labors of 
the coming week. Investigations have repeatedly demon- 
strated that those who keep the Sabbath will live longer, 
enjoy better health, and perform more work than those 
who do not. It is the same in reference to work ani- 
mals. In the settling of California on the overland drive 
across the plains the test has frequently been made ; and 
it has always been found, other things being equal, that 
horses or work oxen that rested on the Sabbath would 
make the journey in less time than those that traveled 
every day. In 1853 six hundred and forty-one physi- 
cians petitioned the Parliament of England against the 
opening of the Crystal Palace on the Sabbath, urging 
that, from their acquaintance with the laws that regulate 
the human economy, they were convinced that the seventh 
day of rest instituted by God, and coeval with the ex- 
istence of man, is essential to the bodily and mental vig- 
or of men in every station in life. Its observance means 



The Sabbath, 171 

not only on that day rest and quietness, but usually also 
the ablution of the body and clean clothes. A Sabbath- 
keeping and Church-going people are much more apt to 
be a cleanly people than those who neglect its observance. 
Lord Macaulay, in a speech in the House of Commons, 
said : '' The natural difference between Campania and 
Spitzbergen is trifling when compared with the difi'erence 
between a country inhabited by men full of mental and 
bodily vigor and a country inhabited by men sunk in 
bodily and mental decrepitude. Therefore it is that we 
are not poorer, but richer, because we have through 
many ages rested from our labor one day in seven. That 
day is not lost. While industry is suspended, while the 
plow lies in the furrow, while the exchange is silent, 
while no smoke ascends from the factory, a process is go- 
ing on quite as important to the wealth of nations as any 
process which is performed on more busy days. Man, 
the machine of machines, compared with which all the 
contrivances of the Wattses and Arkwrights are worth- 
less, is repairing and winding up, so that he returns to 
his labors on Monday with clearer intellect, with livelier 
spirits, and with renewed corj^oral vigor. If the Sunday 
had not been observed as a day of rest ; but the ax, the 
spade, the anvil, and the loom had been at work every 
day during the past three centuries, 1 have no doubt 
that we should have been at this moment a poorer peo- 
ple and a less civilized people than we are." 

Every argument which shows the Sabbath to be con- 
ducive to bodily health proves it also to be beneficial to 
the intellectual well-being of humanity. A sound mind in 
a sound body is such a truism that it needs no demonstra- 
tion. The Sabbath not only tends to intellectual vigor 
by being beneficial to the health of the body, but also it- 
self offers an opportunity for great mental improvement. 



172 National Salvation. 

Perhaps there is no better way by which the man who 
has but Httle time for self-culture can so well gain broad 
views of life, and receive an mtellectual stimulus as by 
attendance on the Sabbath ministrations of an evangel- 
ical Church. Whether a person is a believer or not, 
contact with religious truth is a means of education not 
to be despised. One day in the week given to the 
mere study of books (to say nothing of the manjT- who 
cannot or will not read) does not broaden and en- 
large the mind like Sabbath-attendance for an hour or 
two on a good presentation of that system of truth 
which touches human life at every point here, and un- 
folds and expands its vision until it traces its course to im- 
mortahty. As the apostolic dispensation is wider in its 
mission than either the Mosaic or the patriarchal, so by 
that much broader in our time is the scope of the Sab- 
bath. To the Jew it meant not only a day of rest, but 
also a public assembly, wherein a man who had made re- 
ligion a life-long study would teach him its principles ; 
and by the perils of adversity and the rewards of pros- 
perity would exhort him to faithfulness. Under the ap- 
ostolic dispensation this is extended to all nations ; and 
the motives to obedience are still further emphasized by 
the clearer light of the New Testament on the immortal- 
ity of the soul, and its accountability at the general judg- 
ment, and its final destiny there Jfixed in accordance with 
the deeds done in the body. To still further increase the 
faithfulness of the Jew, the power of God in deliver- 
ing them from bondage in Egypt, in giving manna in the 
wilderness, in the crossing of the Jordan, the capture of 
Jericho, the conquest of Canaan, and his assistance in 
all the gloi^ous events of their national history were re- 
counted with great joy and gladness. In our times, 
when the ministry on the Sabbath will rise to the full 



The Sabbath. 173 

measure of gospel grace, it will be declared how Grod 
through Christ is now delivering nations and crowning 
them with freedom and liberty, and enlightening them 
and making them to enjoy prosperity where before was 
scarcity and barrenness, and enabling individuals to be- 
come victorious over disease and death and hell, and to 
be renewed with the power of an endless life, and pre- 
pared for the resurrection glories and for a place in the 
'' house not made with hands eternal in the heavens." 
Surely appropriate and well-delivered discourses on these 
themes, accompanied by the ministry of prayer and of 
song, not only exert a great spiritual influence, but also 
cannot fail to edify, quicken, and stj^engthen the intellect 
of the hearer. The Sabbath, the pulpit, and a faithful min- 
istry of the word of life are, and always will be, the great 
university of the people. Without them, many who would 
be elevated by their influence in their absence will be 
found to have only blurred spiritual perceptions, with dull, 
sluggish, and inactive minds; and their lives are passed 
in a ceaseless, wearisome round of toil. 

While the design of this work is to point out the 
causes and state the principles that lead to national sal- 
vation, it ought to be well understood that individuals 
by example can do much to cause their acceptance. The 
man or the family that does not observe it as a day 
of rest, and attend the public worship of God, not only 
cuts himself ofl* from the way that above all others 
God has ordained for his conversion and edification, 
but also, by non-attendance, sets a had public example; 
and the man who makes it. a point to be there on the 
Sabbath, and have all his household where the ''truth 
as it is in Jesus " is preached and the whole counsel of 
God is publicly declared, is not only in the way of salva- 
tion, but also is demonstrating to the world his estimate 



1 74 National Salvation, 

of the value of true religion ; and by an example that 
God has frequently blessed, may be pointing others to 
the path of individual and national salvation. 

One of the sure signs of a defective theology is a neg- 
lect of teaching the importance of a scriptural observ- 
ance of the Sabbath. And the evidence of this deficien- 
cy is to be found in great abundance in France, Spain, 
Italy, and everywhere that Catholicism holds sway. 
The transit of the Atlantic has no eifect, for it is the 
same in Quebec, Mexico, and Brazil. The same theology 
will anywhere produce the same results. California and 
Louisiana are the only parts of the Union that to any 
great extent have been controlled b}^ this theology, and 
they are the only States that for upward of two hun- 
dred years have been without a Sabbath law on their 
statute-books. California is yet without one. Until re- 
cently in Louisiana the stores were all open on the Sab- 
bath, and it was the great day for trading, visiting, hunt- 
ing, excursions, sight-seeing, and pleasure parties. A 
short time back a number of evangelical ministers there 
interested themselves in circulating petitions, which were 
presented to the Legislature, and over the protests of the 
Satanic press a Sabbath law was passed and became op- 
erative January 1, 1887. The law enacted is not very 
stringent, but it is decidedly better than no law at all, 
and is reported to be meeting with a moderate degree of 
success in its enforcement. 

And the name Protestant is not a certain antidote 
against a loose observance of the Sabbath. It belongs 
with sacramentalism and •rationalism and every un- 
scriptural theology, even although it claims to be Chris- 
tian. In England during the reign of Charles 1. and 11. 
there were two things that the rectors in the Episcopal 
Church could be depended on with certainty to do. Ojie 



The Sabbath 175 

was to preach from the text, '' Honor the king," and put 
a meaning on it St. Paul never intended ; the other was 
to pubHcly read in their pulpits the "Book of Sports," 
authorizing the desecration of the Sabbath. Milton says 
of it : "I know not what drift the prelates had, but of 
this I am sure : they took the ready waj^ to despoil us 
both of manhood and grace at once, and that in the 
most shameful and ungodly manner, upon that day which 
God's law and even our own reason hath consecrated, 
that we might have one day at least of seven set apart 
wherein to examine and increase our knowledge of God, 
to meditate and commune of our faith, our hope, our eter- 
nal city in heaven, and to quicken withal the study and 
exercise of charity; at such a time that men should be 
plucked from their soberest and saddest thoughts,* and 
by bishops, the pretended ftithers of the Church, insti- 
gated by public edict, and with earnest endeavor pushed 
forward to gaming, jigging, wassailing, and mixed danc- 
ing, is a horror to think." And it would be the same 
there to this day but for the Puritan and Wesleyan ref- 
ormations. This is now the present condition of Prussia. 
The imperial Government there has lately made an in- 
quiry into the observance of the Sabbath by the working 
classes, and finds that 42 per cent, of all factory opera- 
tives and 57 per cent, of those engaged in trade and 
transportation work on that day. Twelve to fourteen 
hours' toil a day, and for half the population seven days' 
labor in the week for small wages is rather a severe com- 
ment on rationalism. The theologians of Prussia ought 
to be able to make a better showing, or else return to the 
teachings of Moses and St. Paul. 

Eecently a writer in the Illustrated Christian Weekly 
presents a view of the matter worthy of notice. The 
cause assigned, however, has its roots in a defective the- 



176 National Salvation. 

ologyjand it is only there that a perfect cure of the evils 
mentioned can be wrought. But what is said is worthy 
of consideration, and is herewith appended : 

It is impossible for the poor to earn a livingj and yet do no 
work on all the Sundays and all the festival days. There being 
about two hundred of the latter, no one person can or pretends 
to refrain from work on more than half of them, and those who 
keep that half can certainly not afford to keep the Sundays too. 
It is true that Germany is largely a Protestant country, but the 
old traditions have still much force, and as the mother of our 
Saviour has supplanted him in the popular estimation, so have 
the saint days supplanted the holy day of rest. 

This growth of the number of holidays is a serious danger in 
any country. The rest of one day in seven is a physical and 
moral necessity, and the addition of a few more days, to be de- 
voted purely to pleasure, is doubtless both enjoyable and profit- 
able. But just so surely as the number of such days is greatly in- 
creased shall we find the Sunday's rest encroached upon. Holi- 
days, for the very class who need them the most, are far too apt 
to become days wherein riotous pleasure takes the place of ra- 
tional recreation or needed rest. Ask every employer of those 
known as the working class (meaning those whose wages are 
reckoned by the day or week), and see if they do not find that 
the work-days which succeed holidays are days in which every 
thing seems to " go wrong " — when packages intended for Har- 
lem are sent to Hoboken, when machinery gets out of order, 
when wagons and harness break, when horses are overdriven or 
their feed forgotten, when surly answers, testiness, and impa- 
tience are the rule. The same is ti-ue when Sunday is treated as 
a holiday. 

How different the case when Sunday is kept as a holy day — a 
day of rest, and of quiet and intelligent enjoyment 1 Enter a large 
store or factory on Monday morning, and how quickly can one 
distinguish those who keep to the old ideas of the Sabbath as a 
holy day — a day sacred to rest and holy pleasures— by the clear 
eye, the fresh complexion, the alert air, elastic step, clear com- 
prehension, and pleasant manner ! 

In America the evil of too many holidays will not be felt so 
goon or so severely as in the older countries, because here wages 



The Sabbath, 111 

are higher and food is more plentiful, but even here their multi- 
plication is a thing for careful consideration. When people no 
longer use intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and celebrate their 
holidays by an intemperate use of them, it may be safe and wise 
to add to the number of rest days, but until that great reform 
has been reached the greater the number of holidays the greater 
will be the amount of sin, suffering, and waste of life. 

We are not free from this evil in the United States. 
Probably the Sabbath- is violated more persistently in 
railroading than in any other business except saloon- 
keeping. The Arabs have a proverb that if a camel gets 
his nose into a tent it will soon be followed by his head, 
and that by his body. The moral is that if you don't 
want the whole animal inside, then do not admit the 
nose. The railroads follow this order. They begin with 
a mail-train, which the law most iniquitously requires. 
From that it is only a step to carrying passengers, then 
to running excursions, and then to carrying freights — 
which latter they nearly all end in doing on the Sabbath. 
This is not merely all wrong, but it is also setting a bad 
public example to the butcher, the ice-dealer, the can- 
ning-factory, and every other business that some of them 
are not slow to follow. Besides, it leaves all the train- 
men, yard-men, station agents, and telegraph operators 
Sabbathless, and of course with very little, if any, of the 
influences of redemption. And this Sabbath labor is so 
contiTiry to the law of man's being that it is slow murder 
to body and soul. The stockholders seem to be careless 
or unaware that each one of these men has a physical 
body, which, if it would live long and serve its owner 
free from sickness, needs a rest every seventh day ; and 
God, who formed and designed it, and knows its needs, 
ordained a Sabbath for man even before sin had entered 
the world. Since then, of course, man's needs of a Sab- 
bath have become more imperative^ for now he has not 
12 



178 National Salvation. 

only a body that needs rest, but a moral and spiritual 
nature that needs to be purified, strengthened, and re- 
habilitated with the grace of the Lord Jesus. What a 
mercy it would be to all these men if the laws of God 
were made the laws of man! How much longer and 
better would they live, and probably brighter would be 
their hopes for immortality ! Many of the companies 
would suspend business on the Sabbath but that they 
fear their trade would go to competing lines, which is an 
additional reason why the State should require all to ob- 
serve the day. With a management that excludes all 
railroad employees from the Sabbath and the moralizing 
influences of redemption, is it any wonder that among 
them unreasonable strikes and riots, involving the loss of 
vast amounts of property and life, are not uncommon ? 
One of them occurred in Pittsburg in 1877, in which six- 
teen hundred cars, one hundred and twenty-six locomo- 
tives, all the railroad shops and material there, and a 
large hotel were burned, and many people killed and 
wounded. It cost Allegheny County three million dol- 
lars ; and if the consequential damage were allowed, it 
would have been five millions. But if the people are re- 
sponsible ^ for the property destroyed in a riot, as the 
courts in that case held, it is another reason why the 
State should imperatively require that railroad comj)a- 
nies, or for that matter every other employer, shall not 
manage their business in such a way that their em- 
ployees become practically heathens and Sabbathless, 
and so predisposed to riot while in their service. 

The United States has no Sabbath laws whatever other 
than that clause in the Constitution which says ^' Sun- 
days excepted" from the ten days allowed the President 
to consider an act of Congress. Hence military parades 
on that day by United States troops are frequent, and 



The Sabbath 179 

Congress has then several times held its sessions, and its 
sanction is given to the running of the mail-train, which 
has a large influence in causing the movement of other 
trains on that day, and also the Government sets before 
the nation the demoralizing example of requiring the 
usual toil on the Sabbath from its one hundred and fifty 
thousand postal employees. There is urgent need here 
of reform and the removal of this "wickedness in high 
places," if the nation would not be corrupted, and its 
present prosperity would be preserved, and a still higher 
and purer civilization would be developed in these United 
States. It is sometimes urged against Sabbath laws that 
they deprive people of their liberty ; but if this is admit- 
ted as a valid objection, it would abolish law altogether, 
for every statute prohibits or commands something, and 
to that extent restrains freedom. But is it not a false 
view of liberty that would ask for the removal of re- 
straints on wrong-doing ? And is it not the province of 
law to ascertain what is evil and prevent it ? The word 
of God, the facts of history, and the universal experience 
of mankind in all ages teach the same lesson and prove 
the evil of the profanation of the Sabbath. And the wel- 
fare of a nation requires the enactment and enforcement 
of laws that guard the sacredness of the Sabbath the 
same as laws that make murder a crime are needed to 
guard the sacredness of human life, or that make theft 
an offense in order to make secure the ownership of 
property. 



National Reform. 



" Power belongeth unto God." 

" Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name." 

" Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name." 

" The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is 
our king ; he will save us." 

" The preservation of Christianity as a national religion is of 
the utmost consequence to the State." — Blackstone. 

"0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine 
help. I will be thy king: where is any other that may save 
thee in all thy cities ? and thy judges of whom thou saidst. Give 
me a king and princes ? " 

" Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, 
both thou and thy sons, and thy son's sons also: for thou hast 
delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto 
them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over 
you ; the Lord shall rule over you." 

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying. All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 

THE usual course of reforms is that a perception of 
their truth is first given to some great soul hunger- 
ing and thirsting after righteousness, and who may be 
cast out for it as a dreamer by his brethren. But as it 
is made known, true men and honorable women (and 
perhaps some that are not so) gather about it ; and when 
it is more fully declared and its benefits become manifest^ 



National Reform. 181 

a party will rise up asking for its adoption. But as this 
would conflict with the existing order of things, it is usu- 
ally frowned on by judicial tribunals, and, as a rule, by 
all in authority. " The kings of the earth set themselves, 
and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, 
and against his Anointed." Then comes the confused 
noise of the warriors, battle, the garments rolled in blood, 
and the burnings with fire, until error is dashed in pieces 
like a potter's vessel, and the truth of God comes forth, 
victorious and triumphant, to reign and bless the earth. 
Of course, with the genuine, the counterfeit reform often 
appears. When Moses wrought miracles, so did the ma- 
gicians of Egypt, by their enchantment, do something 
that looked like them. How may people distinguish the 
true from the false, the real from the apparent, the gen- 
uine from the counterfeit? By the same raethod that a 
young man can cleanse his way, by taking heed there- 
to, and comparing it with the Holy Scriptures. In ev- 
ery advance that humanity has made, that was for its 
good, it has always been found that the Bible would 
sanction and approve the movement. Eecently in the 
United States the Eepublican party claimed for itself 
great honor, because, as soon as it obtained control of the 
National Government, it passed the homestead bill — and 
it is a good law, that ought to have been adopted long 
before it was. But while the party that placed it on the 
statute-book is entitled to some credit in the matter, it 
cannot justly claim for such legislation the merit of an 
original discovery in political science. Turn to the- book 
of JSTumbers, and you will find that the Hebrew lawgiver 
was acquainted with the principles, and, " in the plains 
of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho," made it a part of the 
Constitution of the Commonwealth of Israel thirty-three 
hundred years prior to its enactment at Washington. 



182 National Salvation. 

One great cause why humanity is no better is because 
the Bible is so little known. And we can never hope to 
see it ruling in stores, offices, marts of trade, courts of 
justice, institutions of learning, and halls of legislation 
until the pulpit will expound it in all its fullness, and not 
shun to '' declare the whole counsel of God." Are minis- 
ters of religion aware that partial and defective teaching 
cannot fail to produce a partial, defective, and deformed 
type of piety ? It is probable that the texts upon which 
the different Churches found their theological system 
does not exceed one-tenth, and certainly not over one- 
third, of the Bible. Conceding all that is claimed for 
the measure of truth that each Church holds and de- 
clares to be so valuable, the question still remains : What 
about the other nine-tenths, or at least two-thirds, not 
embraced in the formula of any denomination ? Seeing 
that God has revealed it, and that the Holy Ghost has 
moved patriarchs, prophets, and apostles to write it on 
the infallible page, may it not contain lessons of wisdom 
just as valuable as those portions that find their way into 
the creeds of the different Churches ? Why should the 
teaching of the Bible be ignored on governmental ques- 
tions like liberty or taxation, or the proper administra- 
tion of justice or any other subject on which it speaks ? 
There is no one that confers so much benefit on human- 
ity as the minister of religion who declares the " whole 
counsel of God," and guides the people to a full knowl- 
edge of " the truth as it is in Jesus." On the other hand, 
there is no one that does more harm than the teacher 
who allows the people to rest in vanity and trust in false- 
hood. And often this can be done by merely asserting 
one-half of what the Holy Scriptures teach and remain- 
ing silent about the other half, and so hiding the counsel 
of God as to allow error to pass unrebuked. Well has 



National Reform, 183 

Isaiah said that the eloquent orator declaring the whole 
truth of God stands at the head of all mankind, but ''the 
prophet that teaches lies is the tail." Let the minister 
of religion that reads these lines decide to which of these 
classes he will belong ; and let it be done in the fear of 
Him who has given us his oracles and says they are 
all "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction? 
for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." 

The recognition of the sovereignty of God over the 
State, and the public declaration that the word of the 
Lord contains the principles that should govern its law- 
making assemblies and executive and judicial officers in 
administering its political affairs, is of incalculable bene- 
fit to any nation. When this is done, then will its kings 
be wise and its judges instructed, and will not use the 
powers of their office in opposing the coming of Christ's 
kingdom or any true reform. We have seen how the 
Scriptures are in favor of free institutions ; how in time 
of war they guide a nation to a just cause, and then clothe 
it with might and valor for the conflict; and that they 
teach no principle that has ever proved unsound ; but, on 
the contrary, the experience of all ages demonstrates their 
guidance to be an eminently safe rule of conduct for men 
or nations ; and that they contain lessons of the highest 
professional importance not only to the minister, but to 
other classes, including the jurist, the soldier, and the 
statesman, and their warning against the evil and con- 
sequences of sin, and their guidance for finding the path 
of life and happiness and immortality are indispensable 
to all. Do we desire to have their study become univer- 
sal, and to see the earth filled with the knowledge and 
glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea ; or to see 



184 National Salvation, 

such a reform in the laws as would properly regulate the 
granting of divorce ; or the courts cleansed from corrup- 
tion, and justice fairly and speedily administered ; or the 
great cause of temperance to move forward triumphant 
and victorious; or to have such wise sanitary regula- 
tions adopted as would effectually stamp out epidemics, 
or such legislation enacted as would suppress monopolies 
and prevent the accumulation of vast fortunes in the 
hands of a few, when thereby the many are impover- 
ished? Nothing would more surely and speedily bring 
these things to pass than for the nation to acknowledge 
its allegiance to the only true God and be governed by 
his laws. Let this be done by any nation, and the com- 
ing to that people of things that are true, things that 
are pure, things that are honest, things that are lovely 
and of good report, and of every true reform, is insured. 
And that these benefits may be perpetuated, let the su- 
preme judicature in each nation be given authority to 
annul and declare unconstitutional any statute that is 
contrary to the perfect law of the Lord.* The same 
power that causes these blessings to draw nigh among a 
people can alone preserve them. 

An individual can only become pure by acknowledg- 
ing God and living in accordance with his command- 
ments ; and it is the same with a nation. While sin is in 
the world there is no other way of escape from it, or of 
individual or national salvation ; and if a soul can find 
rest and safety and its highest degree of usefulness by 
accepting the yoke and burden of Christ, so also in the 
same manner can a Commonwealth. The benefit of any 
political reform can be but ephemeral until this one is 
reached ; and it is only in this way that its government 

"^ Blackstone, in his " Commentaries," advances substantially 
this opinion. 



Ifational Reform, l85 

can become an unmixed benefit, productive of the great- 
est amount of good. In the granting of subsidies, the 
letting of contracts, making appointments to office, and 
in ordering public aifairs, governments wield a vast pow- 
er. Their influence is so great that if the government 
of a nation legalizes saloon-keeping, or the granting of 
immoral divorces, or even piracy on the high seas, with 
a great many these things at once cease to be disreputa- 
ble. Shall this power and influence be exerted on the 
side of the right or of the wrong ? Shall it be wielded 
on the Lord's side and for the highest good of the peo- 
ple, or, as it has often been done, to the injury of human- 
ity and on the side of the evil one ? A great many think 
that expediency and monetarj^ consideration are the 
highest principles that should be admitted in govern- 
mental aflairs ; and this sentiment is so prevalent that the 
best that can usually be said of governments is that they 
are of the earth earthy, and sometimes they are con- 
trolled by principles that are sensual and devilish. But 
there are far higher and better motives than any mere 
consideration of dollars and cents, and it is decidedly to 
the welfare of humanity that these superior motives 
should govern. It is a glory of the system of morals 
which redemption unfolds that it includes whatever of 
good there is in economic, educational, military, sanitary, 
or political science. And a cardinal defect in the view 
that confines governments to mere utilitarian principles 
is that you thereby lessen their power for good, and ex- 
clude the influence that above all others would keep them 
pure — the only salt that can save them from reeking (as 
they all do more or less) with corruption. You can de- 
bate the tarifi*, the fisheries, the status of national banks, 
or the relation of capital and labor, from the stand-point 
of Mammon's altar, and any mere consideration of dol- 



186 National Salvation. 

lars and cents and, at the end of the controversy, as far 
as any purification of the atmosphere of government is 
concerned, you are no nearer than when you commenced. 
But it is not so when moral principles are enthroned and 
in the light of immortality these questions are examined 
and decided. Then every atom and fiber of government, 
from center to circumference, feels the thrill and throb 
of a renovated life, hallowed and purified by the exalt- 
ed moral principles with which it is controlled. Every 
one of them is an emanation and ray of the glory of God 
that through Christ is coming down to bless the world ; 
and the more of them any nation will gather up, and 
upon them found their laws and constitutions and na- 
tional life, the better will it be for that people ; pro- 
vided, however, that they are held and taught in their 
true and proper relation to the Godhead. An eifort has 
been made in the schools over and over again to teach 
morals, dissevered and without any connection with 
divinity, and every time it has failed. It has always 
been found that moral principles lose their authority, 
strength, and power, and fall to the level of a mere 
system of philosophy, when separated from their great 
Author. Hence, the only complete and perfect salvation 
for a nation, as for an individual, is found in acknowl- 
edging and hallowing the name of Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, and acting in accordance with the moral 
laws that God has designed to govern States and Com- 
monwealths as well as persons. It will be a glad day 
for mankind when this is done, and when not only the 
house of Israel, but all nations in their governmental 
institutions shall walk in the light of God. Then the 
splendors of the millennial day will begin to dawn upon 
earth, and the shinings of its sun will speedily cover 
the earth with a radiance and halo of heavenly glory. 



National Reform. 187 

God speed its appearing and drawing nigh ! Amen, and 
amen. 

But these blessings for a nation can only be brought 
about when the followers of Christ, like their Lord, will 
witness to the truths of the word of God, and valiantly 
contend for the faith therein delivered to the saints. 
And that reveals not only the doctrines that regenerate 
the hearts of men, but also the principles of truth, equity, 
righteousness, and mercy when compatible with justice 
that are everywhere the essentials of good government. 
In ascertaining what shall be declared by the State an 
ofPonse injurious to society, and affixing a proper penalty 
neither too lenient nor too severe for each transgression, 
in efforts to secure the reformation of criminals, in or- 
daining the public policy to be pursued to prevent dis- 
ease and to preserve the general health, and in the treat- 
ment of the insane, in defining the method and scope of 
instruction that shall be given in the public schools, in 
regulating commerce, and in the levying and collecting 
of taxes, and in every other act performed by Govern- 
ment, the light and guidance of the political teachings of 
the word of God are of the utmost importance. And the 
Church that will not witness to the truth of the govern- 
mental principles of the Holy Scriptures is not only want- 
ing in fidelity to the Most High, but also recreant to the 
welfare and happiness of mankind. Their teachings in 
reference to usury, liberty, taxation, the tenure of land, 
and every other political principle that they reveal are 
not only for the glory of God, but also for the benefit 
and happiness of men. And the Church that will not 
assert them and declare the whole counsel of God is 
thereby prevented from assisting in large measure in 
producing the splendors of the millennial day, and be- 
coming the glorious Church Christ would have it be- 



188 National Salvation. 

come — fair as the moon, and clear as the sun, in full- 
orbed heavenly brightness. 

The idea at the bottom of the ministry and upon which 
it is founded is that of reform. While there is error and 
darkness in the earth, the man that will lay hold of truth 
and assert it becomes by that very act a revolutionist 
and a reformer. And as long as there is error not only 
in individuals, but also in society and in government, 
those who stand for truth will be called on to antagonize 
it in these places, and Christ has set his followers the exam- 
ple. He not only taught the truths of personal salvation, 
but he also boldly attacked sanctimonious hypocrisy in 
the Church and the worldhness in the State that was de- 
stroying the nation. A combination of these two influ- 
ences led to his death, but that did not prevent him from 
saying : '^ Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of 
the leaven of Herod." The former error made rehgion 
to consist of mere trifles like the tithing of mint and 
cummin, while neglecting the " weightier matters of the 
law" like truth, justice, and good works; and the lat- 
ter secularized the ordinance of government, and placed 
the source of authority in a man instead of in God ; and 
this evil spread like leaven, until it touched the commis- 
sion and influenced the acts of every public officer in the 
nation. The Lord Jesus made some converts among the 
rich, and " a great company of the priests were obedient 
unto the faith ; " but he passed these all by in selecting 
apostles, and chose for leaders of the revolution nearly 
all publicans and fishermen. Here was wisdom; for the 
tastes and affinities of the professional minister of relig- 
ion are nearly all averse to the stormy scenes of revolu- 
tion. While reform means the cause of truth advanced, 
and a weight of glory in immortality for the heroes of 
its conflict, it is only done through sacrifice and self-de- 



National Reform, 189 

nial and popular opprobrium; and unless a man has 
strong faith he is apt to think it best to be a proper cler- 
gyman, and to work by policy and teach no unpleasant 
truths, but preach the old doctrines of the Church that 
centuries ago represented great questions. And it has 
often happened that when humanity was crushed to the 
earth like the traveler on the Jericho road, and by such 
a robber as the opium or the liquor traffic or some great 
governmental wrong, that the priest and the Levite both 
made it convenient to pass by on the other side, and leave 
the work of deliverance and restoration to a Samaritan 
who, perhaps, made little or no pretension to piety. This 
did happen in France in the seventh century, and the 
deliverers of the nation were nearly all atheists ; but they 
had right and the sermon on the mount on their side, 
while the clergy had only some old stale doctrines and 
commandments of men. These things ought not so to 
be. There is no good and sufficient reason that the cler- 
gy should not be among the advocates of reforms that 
are founded on the Scriptures, no matter whether they 
are personal ones, like signing a total abstinence pledge, or 
a governmental question, like the recognition of Christ 
by the State. Some may say that if they were to take 
a part in these things they would at once become a tar- 
get for the opposition ; but is not the man who does for 
righteousness' sake in the true succession, from Abel on 
down to the last martyr. While others, unkinged by 
bread and butter, may say that they could endure perse- 
cution, but that if they were to touch a public question, 
no matter if it were sustained by every chapter in the 
Holy Scriptures, it would still give offense to some prom- 
inent politicians and other influential people in the con- 
gregation, and their support would be withdrawn. But 
is not the minister bidden to consider the lilies of tho 



190 National Salvation. 

field and the fowls of the air, and to be encouraged by 
the care taken of them ; and has not the poet well said : 

"To side with truth is noble when we share her abject crust, 
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be 

just. 
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands 

aside, 
Doubting in his abject spirit till his Lord is crucified." 

Benedict Arnold, for thirty thousand dollars and a 
general's commission in the British army, agreed to be- 
tray his trust and surrender West Point into the hands 
of the enemy that he was appointed to resist. The loss 
of such an important port, with all its troops and muni- 
tions of war, at that critical time, might have proved fa- 
tal to the independence of the United States. But the 
treachery of Arnold is only a small matter in compari- 
son with the offense committed by ministers of religion 
when they surrender the principles of redemption that 
bring health and liberty and prosj)erity to all the multi- 
plied millions of earth. Consider the enormity of the 
crime committed in destroying the prosperity of a coun- 
try, and reducing the wages of all its laborers from one 
dollar to fifty and twenty-five, and even fifteen, cents a 
day, and decreasing the income of all other classes in 
proportion ; and in betraying the liberties of a people, 
and letting oppression crush the genius of its poets, ora- 
tors, inventors, discoverers, philosophers, and profound 
thinkers, until it ceases to produce any eminent men or 
illustrious women ; and in wasting the health of whole 
communities, until, instead of doubling their population 
in sixty years, as is done in most Protestant nations, it 
takes a Eoman Catholic country from one hundred to one 
hundred and fifty years, and an idolatrous heathen region at 
least two centuries to make the same increase. Surely no pen- 



National Reform. 191 

alty can be too great for the person who would bring down 
upon a whole nation all these calamities. But it is continual- 
ly being done, as the present condition of the world clearly 
proves, and largely through the unfaithfulness of teachers 
of religion who will not declare " the w^hole counsel of God." 
Ministers often love the truth and the welfare of the people 
so little, and their own ease and honor that cometh from 
men so much, that they will prophesy smooth things, and 
only slightly heal the moral maladies of the race, while 
crying peace, peace! although there can be none while sin 
remains. A very plain instance of this unfaithfulness to 
truth (and on a large scale) occurred a few years ago in 
Mexico. For the consideration of the ministry being made 
secure in their possessions, the great body of the Catholic 
priests and the superior clergy to a man surrendered the 
liberties of the Mexican people, and on the ruins of the re- 
public helped to erect an imperial throne for Maximilian. 
It did not succeed, but it showed that even in modern times 
the warnings of the word of God against priestcraft should 
be heeded, and that chief priests are still not free from 
their old vices of strangling truth, and making merchan- 
dise of the souls of men. 

But it shall not forever continue this way, and religion 
will not always remain in a narrow channel, and be merely 
a thing of the pew, the pulpit, and the cloister. Some day 
it will overleap these boundaries, and, under the bann^s of 
Prince Immanuel in the hands of heroic spirits, valiant for 
the truth of God and the crow-n rights of the Lord Jesus, it 
will march forth over all the earth, conquering and to con- 
quer. Then the Church will open her eyes to the fullness 
of her mission, and perceive that her w^ork is not only to 
save individuals, but also to saturate society with the truth 
of God, and to leaven and hallow and purify all the arts, 
sciences, institutions, and governments of earth ; and look- 



192 National Salvation, 

ing well to the foundation of a pure heart in all of her 
members and exhorting them to glorify God with a holy 
life, she will put on her beautiful garments, and with the 
evidences of all the sick she has healed, all the hungry fed, 
all the captives she has delivered, and all the ignorant she has 
instructed ; and, moving amid mills, factories, railroads, tele- 
graph lines, electric lights, and all the paraphernalia of a 
matchless civilization that her wisdom has enabled the na- 
tions to invent, she will summon the court, and the camp, and 
the mart of trade, and the halls of legislation, and the exec- 
utive offices of Government, and all the inhabitants of the 
earth to behold the majesty of Christ, and for every knee 
to bow and tongue to confess that he is Lord over all to 
the glory of God. Then will a sound be heard like the 
voice of many waters and like the voice of mighty thun- 
derings echoing from hill and dale, and from plain and 
mountain, and from river and lake, and from city and wil- 
derness; and the islands of the sea will take up the refrain, 
until world-wide there will be a universal cry : 

" Bring forth the royal diadem 
And crown him Lord of ail." 



Tlie CoiiGlilsion. 



"And further, by these, my son, be admonished : of making- 
many books there is no end ; and much study is a weariness of 
the flesh. Let us hear the condusion of the whole matter." — 
Ecdesiastes xii. 12, 13. 

" Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdoui 
to God, even the Father ; when he shall have abolished all rule 
and all authority and power. [Not derived from God, and such 
as springs from, or in any wise shelters, sin.] For he must reign, 
till he hath put all his enemies under his feet." — / Corinthians 
XV. 24, 25. 

"And I saw the heaven opened ; and behold, a white horse, 
and he that sat thereon, called Faithful and True ; and in right- 
eousness he doth judge and make war. And his eyes are a flame 
of fire, and upon his head are many diadems ; and he hath a 
name written, which no one knoweth but he himself. And he 
is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood : and his name is 
called the word of God. And the armies which are in heaven 
followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
pure. And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that 
with it he should smite the nations : and be shall rule them with 
a rod of iron : and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness of 
the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his garment and 
on his thigh a name written, king of kings, and lord of lords." 
— Revelation xix. 11-16. 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heav- 
en and the first earth are passed away ; and the sea is no more. 
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of 
heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her hus- 
band. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Be- 
hold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with 
them, and thev shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be 
13 



194 National Salvation. 

with them, and be their God : and he shall wipe away every 
tear from their eyes ; and death shall be no more ; neither shall 
there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first 
things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne said. 
Behold, I make all things new. And he saith, Write : for these 
words are faithful and true. And he said unto me. They are come 
to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the 
end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the 
water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these 
things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But for 
the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, 
and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their 
part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone ; 
which is the second death." — Revelation xxL 1-8. 

MOSES, after leading the Israelites out of bondage 
and bringing them through the wilderness, went up 
on the mountain of Nebo to view the promised land. He was 
leaving a redeemed nation with its governmental institu- 
tions settled in accordance with the word of God and with 
the " lively oracles " on high, where they could best mold 
and shape the social, educational, spiritual, commercial, 
sanitary, political, and military life of the people. From 
the righteousness of the principles on which the nation was 
founded he knew that with faithfulness on the part of the 
priesthood and people and a good location, an unrivaled 
civilization would be produced. For his satisfaction the 
Lord showed him from the top of Pisgah the mountains of 
Moab, with their rich pasturage; the Jordan valley, with 
its luxuriant growth and tropical climate; the hills, where 
they could dig iron; the lake of Galilee, where they could 
get fish; the productive plain of Jezreel; the snowy Her- 
mon; the vale of Sharon; Lebanon, with its cedars; "and 
all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and 
all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea." This book 
has been written with the hope that, like Nebo, it too would 
prove *' a mount of vision " for its readers, and that from 



The Conclusion, 195 

its pages would be visible the goodly land that God in 
Christ is now offering to all nations where the authority of 
the State and the sword of the magistrate has removed any 
thing that would hurt or destroy; where there is an abun- 
dant prosperity for every one, and no scarcity ; where there 
is such moral purity and wise sanitary regulations that dis- 
ease is banished and health is the lot of all ; where there is 
a love of righteousness among the people, and so many of 
the burdens of labor are removed, and there is such a large 
measure of social, industrial, and political liberty that there 
is time and opportunity for every one to cultivate their spir- 
itual and intellectual nature, and all are coming in the 
unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God 
unto a perfect man. Surely such a high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus is beyond comparison — better than any thing 
the world, the flesh, or the devil will give. Is it wise, is it 
patriotic, is it just to ourselves and to the welfare of society 
to remain outside of such a realm. Consider it fully, for its 
merits will stand a close scrutiny and bear a thorough ex- 
amination. And now, with reason and judgment both con- 
vinced, and conscience approving, while it is called to-day 
strive to enter in by the strait gate of repentance and 
the narrow way of the new birth, and persevere to the end 
that you may be salt to the earth, a light to the world, and 
a worker together with God in bringing these things to 
pass; and in immortality be made an heir of glory ever- 
lasting 

Some may think that this subject of national salvation 
has been unfolded in all its fullness because they have been 
told of the prosperity of gospel lands, and of the poverty 
of heathen countries, and shown that the Lord Jesus, with 
his great salvation, is the cause of the abundance in the 
one, and sin and the wicked one the cause of the scarcity 
in the other. But to know the full measure of prosperity 



196 National Salvation. 

possible to the nation, which in all things Would be con- 
formed to the will of God, one would need to w^alk the gold- 
en streets of the new Jerusalem, and eat of the tree of life, 
and drink of the water of life, and have every Vv^ant of body 
and soul and spirit satisfied. And to know the full meas- 
ure of poverty that can come to a place by reason of sin, 
one would need to descend into the bottomless pit and see 
the want and absence of all things that can satisfy the im- 
mortal soul. Will Hot every one who hears these words or 
reads these lines be warned of his danger, and now, while 
it is called to-day^ repent of sin and be washed in the blood 
of the Lord Jesus, and through the sealing of the Holy 
Ghost be made an heir of life eternal and of the recom- 
pense of reward in store for the faithful? Amen, and 
amen ! 

It IS the same in reference to education. You have been 
shown the illumination and fruitfulness of the mind in 
gospel lands, caused by the salvation of Christ, who is the 
light of the world ; and the darkness and barrenness of the 
mind in heathen countries by reason of sin; but to know 
the full measure of light possible to the nation that in all 
things will be conformed to the will of God one would need 
to ascend to that city that has no need of the sun, neither 
of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God and the 
Lamb will lighten it with such effulgence that darkness 
will flee away, and there shall be " no night there." And 
to know just the full shadow and blindness that sin can 
bring upon the inhabitants of a land one would need to en- 
ter the regions of the damned, where there is nothing but 
intense and outer darkness for evermore. Would we escape 
this danger and draw nigh to the realm of light, and even 
here partake of a measure of its benefits? Then let our 
Government here, as far as possible, be like the Govern- 
ment of that land of endless day, where all of the inhabit- 



The Conclusion. 197 

ants, with a loud voice, ascribe glory and honor and power 
unto God and the Larab forever and ever. Amen ! 

You have been shown the evil of sin in causing disease, 
and how rapidly people die in heathen countries, so that 
there the deaths almost equal the births; and how it takes 
a Catholic nation more than as long again to double its 
population as it does a Protestant community. But to know 
the full disease-})roducing power of sin, and all the pain it 
can cause, we would need to enter the region bereft of all 
restraining influences, where it has spread to every organ 
and joint and fiber and tissue and nerve of the body, and 
disordered every faculty of the mind and every aflfection 
of the heart, and has become ranker and more virulent the 
longer it has continued, causing the everlasting pains and 
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the never- 
ending torments of the danmed. Would we escape this 
fate, and enjoy here the highest possible degree of health ? 
Then let our Government approximate and become like the 
Government of that land where the inhabitants live for- 
ever, and never more say they are sick. And there, upon 
that symbol of majesty and dominion, a throne is — God and 
the Lamb — and the twenty-four elders and all in authority 
acknowledge their allegiance, and cast their crownS before 
that throne, saying: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive 
glory, and honor, and power from all forever and ever. 
Amen." 

You have been shown, in part, the national destruction 
that goes with sin, and how Pharaoh and his host were 
whelmed in the depths of the sea, and how Israel went down 
in the Babylonish captivity. But to know the full measure 
of ruin that sin can accomplish, one must })enetrate the re- 
gion where hope never enters, and hear the wails and sor- 
rows of those for whom there is nevermore to be any res- 
toration. On the other hand you have been told of the 



198 National Salvation, -^ 

song of triumph that Moses sung at the Red Sea, and how 
Cromwell did the same thing at Dunbar ; but if we would 
hear its highest notes, we must pass the pearly gates, and 
amid blessings from the throne, and anthems from angel 
choirs, and hallelujahs from all the heavenly host, hear 
the shouts of the redeemed as they become victorious over 
death, hell, and the grave, and are crowned evermore con- 
querors in the kingdom of God. Do we desire to hear and 
see less in the earth of the wails and miseries of the van- 
quished, and more of the songs of praise and thanksgiving? 
Then let our Governments, as much as possible, conform to 
the Government of that land where sighs and groans are 
never heard, but the shouts and songs of triumphs are per- 
petual. And there is heard " the voice of many angels 
round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders: and 
the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, 
and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, 
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and 
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, 
and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and 
on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the 
sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying. Blessing, and 
honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Amen! 

Now unto God, who is able to do exceeding abundantly 
above all that we ask or think, *' unto him be glory in the 
Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without 
end. Amen." 

" The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
God, and the communi(m of the Holy Ghost, be with you 
all. Amen." 



"TEACH ALL NATIONS." 

^K WAKE, Jerusalem, awake I 
S^> No longer in thy sins lie down. 
The garment of salvation take, 

Thy beauty and thy strength put on. 

Shake off the dust that blinds thy sight. 
And hides the promise from thine eyes ; 

Arise, and struggle into light, 
The great DelivVer calls, xlrise ! 

Shake off' the bands of sad despair; 

Zion, assert thy liberty ; 
Look up, thy broken heart prepare, 

And God shall set the captive free. 

Vessels of mercy, sons of grace, 
Be jDurged from every sinful stain ; 

Be like your Lord, his word embrace, 
Nor bear his hallowed name in vain. 

The Lord shall in your front appear. 
And lead the pompous triumph on ; 

His glory shall bring up the rear, 
And perfect what his grace begun. 

''O ZiON, THAT BRINGEST GOOD TIDINGS, GET THEE UP 
INTO THE HIGH MOUNTAIN ; O JERUSALEM, THAT BRINGEST 
GOOD TIDINGS, LIFT UP THY VOICE WITH STRENGTH ; LIFT IT 
UP, BE NOT AFRAID ; SAY UNTO THE CITIES OF JUDAH, BeHOLD 

YOUR God ! " — Isaiah xl. 9. How greatly do many of the 

CITIES and high PLACES OF GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED 

States to-day need to hear and obey that message of 
the everlasting gospel for the salvation of nations ! 



WHAT IS SAID ABOUT 

NATIONAL SALVATION. 



" It ought to have a world-wide circulation."— J. W. Sorrells, Grand Master 
Arkansas t . and A . M. 

" The book is a prophecy of what in time will surely be fulfilled."— Jb/m 
S. ^kibly, M.D., Paris, Ark. 

"I have read ' National Salvation' through witli pleasure and profit." — 
Henry C Caldwell, Judge of Eighth V. S. Judicial Circuit. 

" 'National Salvation ' lets in a flood of light on a most important sub- 
ject." — J. C. Fraker, Secretary Prohibition Party in Arkansas. 

'•'National Salvation' is devoted, as the title indicates, to showing that 
the principles of the gospel are sufficient for the solution of national ques- 
tions, and their disregard is responsible for all national evils." — South- 
ivestern Methodist. 

" The author of 'National Salvation' has a fair conception of what a model 
government ought to be. The fundamental idea ot the book is correct. The 
more the statutes of a State approximate to the laws of God, the more pros- 
perous will that State become." — Rev. F. R. Earl, President Cane Hill College. 

'• One must read for years and thresh out whole libraries of literarj'- straw 
to get the pure grain the author has given us in this little book. Not only 
ministers and laymen, but statesmen and senators may read it with profit. 
A preacher can find in it the frame -work of several valuable sermons that 
would be fresh and relishable." — Rev. H. R. Withers, D.D. 

" The work is timely, and will do a vast amount of good, if read and stud- 
ied. The author would point all nations to the Bible as the best text-book 
of morals and politics and jurisprudence the world has ever known or ever 
will know. The Jewish theocracy as outlined in the Old Testament, and 
perfected in the Gospels and illustrated in the liie of Christ, is the best gov- 
ernment for all peoples, and the one under which the highest prosperity 
and happiness will be enjoyed. When our courts of justice, Legislatures, 
and executive officers of Government make that book their guide ; when all 
the questions of war, liberty, justice, health, peace, reform, labor, capital, 
prohibition, taxation, and arbitration are brought to Jesus Christ for settle- 
ment, then, and not till then, may we expect to realize those national bless- 
ings which are promised under the ideal theocracy," — Rocky Mountain 
Methodist. 



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